Hello,
My name is Jessica. I am a Canadian Citizen living and working at a dive shop in Costa Rica. I saw your movie in Canada a couple of years ago while it was in theaters, and ever since then I have had a passion to help save the sharks, despite at the time never having seen one. Now that I work in a dive shop in Costa Rica (in Playas del Coco), I have contact with divers every single day, and I always always ask people ‘have you seen the movie Sharkwater’? I couldn’t believe how many people, divers, who have never even heard about it! These are the people we need to watch the movie! They are people who obviously care about the underwater environment, and they need to know what is happening to it. I endorse the movie every single day. I tell people ‘when you go home you have to watch this movie’. But it would be easier if I had some movies there to sell people. I don’t know if there is any way we could arrange buying a whole box of the movie so that I could tell ALL of my customers to buy it!
One day a man came into our shop just fuming mad, and he said he had went to a little fresh fish market place to buy some fish and they had at least 60 shark fins and a manta ray all chopped up. We have a huge painting on the side of our shop that says ’stop shark fining’ so as he was passing by to go to the supermarket instead to buy fish, he stopped in to tell us about it, in hopes that we would know who to report to about it. We can’t do anything to report them with out proof. so we sent two of our workers to try to get pictures of it. Unfortunately after the man had made such a big fuss about it they had put most of it away. So when our workers got there there wasn’t much to take pictures of. I share this story with you so you can see that I live first hand every day. We see fishing boats out at our dive sites sometimes catching Octopus for example; and then we see none for about a week when we normally see tons! It is just appalling what massacre goes on out there all the time, and more people need to know about it, everyone needs to know about it.
I have made everyone I know in Canada watch the movie, now I need to get all the people who dive with us watch it.
I want to do everything I can to help, please let me know if you can help me get movies sent to my shop for me to sell to all the customers, or if there is anything else I can do to help save sharks.
Best Regards,
-Jessica
Thanks for your efforts Jessica!
Drew
Was just in China - wondering if and when the movie will make it’s way there?
WOW, that’s pretty intense :S
I tried to start a petition over e-mail to stop shark finning but only like 5 people signed it sadly :[
im gonna keep trying though!!
Hey Jessica,
I live just down south of you in Tamarindo and operated a dive and tour business for years here as well and saw much of what you saw - - it hasnt even begin to sink in here on a national level and unfortunately the environmental degridation here is so much that when it is newsworthy, its on a massive scale and doesnt reach the people for more than the day its on the shelves. The press doesnt do enough to bring the horrors like these to the general public and frankly, people dont care enough or havent been educated enough to have an opinion about it.
Environmental degridation here is always overlooked and there is little money to put the systems and watchdogs in place to protect it from the evils of capitalism and mega profits things like the logging and shark finning business provide. What we can do is keep spreading the word, raise awareness but even more so persue the legistlation needed to put more stringent environmental protection acts on the already corrupt waters of Costa Rica.. that is where the root of the problem is. See you in the water!
Lock Cooper
Chairman - Surfrider Foundation Costa Rica
lockcooper@gmail.com
Desperately seeking Rob Stewart…
Dear Rob, My firm is currently designing a magazine that is dedicated to sustainability and have convinced the publishers to donate 16 pages to sustainability-focused organisations to advertise their cause… We’d like to offer you a double page spread… unfortunately deadline is tight… next week so if you are interested please write me an I shall forward you all the relevant details to consider… Nigel
Dear Rob:
I am a Costa Rican Veterinarian. Last night I had the opportunity to see your movie and I feel deeply ashamed of the amazing corruption and hypocrisy of my country…
I want to apologize with you for this and express that the great majority of my people will never accept this criminal activity.
The great failure of Democracy, is that very few persons have to power to decided for the all country and very often the “rulers” hide the information from the masses.
I am actively promoting your movie to make our people aware of what is really going on here.
Thanks to you and to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society people for risking your lives and opening our eyes.
Dr. Rafael Gamboa
rafagam10@yahoo.com
hi my real name is ana, i’m a mexican citizen and i know a little english language…
i saw the movie (sharkwater)…
and i though…
maybe if we xplain to kids what it’s happening they help us to save the sharks, to save the planet, to SAVE US!!
but… the movie is in english…
so they don’t understand mostly of things…
so… if someone of you can dubbed into spanish that would be awesome…
thx…
hi! i´m Noemi from Argentina and i just wanted to say that i saw your movie a few days ago and it was amazing, your story touch all us depply.
thx!!!
whatever i can do for sharks or another species i will do it, now i know what important it is for our planet and ours lifes.
i´m studding Boilogy at university and i hope to do something as your work one day. but i really hope that people get conscious about what they re doing to our planet. they have to know that we can change the world for good or for bad…
i´m doing my best for change te world for good, and you too.
my best wishes. congratulations!
pd: sorry about my english… i´m not so goood in foreing languages!
I saw the ROb Stewart´s movie, i send my best wishes for Rob and i suggest him to take a look in another pacific´s islands named gorgona and malpelo. location Colombia. there is people in colombia interested in preservation of sea life. may be in our country (colombia), government hear us about this problem. i see a documental and colombian navy support people interested in preservation of the national marine reserves, they were worried about lack of patrols in this zones.
dear Rob Stewart,
I really loved your movie shark water. I love sharks so much and I did before I watched your movie. when I watched it, it made me realize just how important sharks are. I am a grade 8 student and I’m 13 years old and I live in Canada in Nova Scoita. I think taht shark fining is very cruel and should’t be allowed all around the world. I told all of my friends about the movie and they told me why would you want to watch a movie about sharks. when they told me that I almost broke down into tears. rob, I think what you do is amazing. when I grow up I want to be like you. I also took you movie to a show and tell that we did in french class. when it was my turn to show I said what I had to say in french. some of the girls told me that they thought that you were hot and I said to them that sharks were more improtant than telling me that Rob Stewart is hot( no affence but I think you are hot). I am deeply touched by the movie and would love to see you make another movie about sharks. my fave shark is a great white. I think they are maginificent animals and are not man eaters. even though I had never seen a shark in my life I would do anything to see one in my life.
shaelene robar
Hi Rob:Greatttt movie.Bought a copy going to buy a second copy for my friend Macao in Cuba.He the director of Sharks Friends dive center at Playa Santa Luciat in Camaguey province Cuba.From October February there are Bull Sharks in the area and the center takes small groups on a dive.On this dive the sharks are hand fed nobody wearing chainmail and nobody is in a cage.The shark is not mindless killer,they are very smart creatures that have survived for 450 million years.They must be protected,if they become extinct the oceans will be totally outof balance.We must all do our part.From reading all the comments the movie has made real impact,every chance I get Iam preaching concerve the ocean and stop the shark killing.I am going to promote Sharks Friend dive center in the new year to get more divers aware of the predecement the shark is in.Again Rob great movie thank you and good luck.
A couple of weeks ago, the shark mafia of Puntarenas send their boats to block the main pier of the city in an efford to stop the new regulations who forced them to bring all the shark´s body intead of only their fins. That action caused that one cruise ship could not arrive to Puntarenas and is estimated that the loss due to this is over $1.000.000. All the people who live thanks to turism were really mad and ask the goverment for punishment and actions against the people who blocked the pier. Puntarenas is a city with limited employment opportunities.
Fiquei extremamente emocionada ao ver em um canal de televisão o programa “sharkwater”, não tinha nenhum conhecimento sobre a crueldadde cotra os tubarões, confesso que chorei ao ver as cenas de violação a natureza.
Estou em uma área de grande desmatamento “Amazônia”, realmente estamos destruindo a vida, acabando com o mundo. O homem é seu pior inimigo, consciente, raciocinio, calculista,
destroi a ele mesmo e a tudo que tem vida.
Agradeço a todos aqueles que fazem parte desta ong em defesa da vida.
Emeline Furtado Monteiro de Carvalho
I was extremely moved when I saw Sharkwater on television, I did not have any knowledge on the cruelty towards sharks, I confess that I cried when seeing the scenes of violence against nature. I am in an area of great deforestation “the Amazon”, really we are destroying life, finishing with the world. Man is the enemy, without conscience, reasoning, calculating, destroys himself and life. I thank all those that are part of this in defense of life. Emeline Furtado Monteiro de Carvalho