Sincerly your biggest fan,

Alexis Jamil

My name is Aylin and I am a dive instructor, marine conservationist and reef ecologist.
I am presently working in southern Belize for Reef Conservation International. We do quite a bit of conservation work and work on this amazing island called Hunting Caye in the Sapodilla cayes. It is 40 miles off shore, just 5 acres in area and equidistant to Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. For our work we conduce Reef Check and measure both lobster and queen conch populations, we also help the Belizian Fisheries Department (who are world leaders in conservation) do SPAG surveys on grouper and snapper populations.
Anyways I just had a firend bring down the Sharkwater DVD and have been showing it to all my conservation/diving guests. Every diver needs to see that movie and educate everyone else about the peril sharks face and how not dangerous they are to divers and swimmers and just how toxic their meat is since they are top predators.
Some locals i know killed an 8 foot hammerhead shark this week for food and becuase they were scared of it and I was sooo upset and made them watch the movie right away. I think I , or actually you, changed their mistrust about sharks.
Every dive shop needs a copy of that movie.
Anyways, i am promoting you and your movie all i can.
You are truly a hero!
Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help the sharks!
Good luck and hope to meet you one of these days!
Education truly works wonders.
Here is a little quote I love,

In the end we only conserve what we know,
We only know what we understand,
And we only understand what we are taught.

Baba Dioum, Sengalese Poet.

Cheers! Keep uo the good work!

Aylin Ulman

Thanks Rob Stewart for making such an eye opening film that got me interested in marine conservation.

I was just reading through the entries and came across this one….it caught my eye cause I just came back from Costa Rica and saw this painting on the side of your dive shop…and have nearly the exact same photo of it! I was so thrilled to see this painting while in Play del Coco as I had got the Sharkwater DVD for Christmas. We went diving while there and were lucky enough to see a few whitetip reef sharks (I was getting certified and had only gone diving once before so that was an amazing experience). I did not see any shark fins for sale in markets while in Costa Rica (all over the Pacific and Caribbean side), not to say there weren’t any around, but probably lucky that I didn’t as I likely would have caused quite the seen had I come across any (and not the best idea when visiting a foreign country and considering the mafia links with shark finning). I was pleasantly surprised that most Costa Ricans were very outspoken about their thoughts on shark finning and that it was wrong and needed to be stopped.

I’m proud of your dive shop for creating such a beautiful painting and helping to spread the word!!

Love from Canada
xo

As a fellow Canadian, you couldn’t make me more proud! I have loved animals and nature my whole life and it amazes me how little people know about our beautiful planet and all its beautiful and amazing creatures. I think educating people is our best chance about making a difference. As you found out money seems to be the usual source that drives poaching and unlawful cruel actions against animals. People need to stop financially supporting these types of things but they can’t unless they know about it! I think you did a great job and I hope you continue to make movies that expose the unknown. When Steve irwin died I felt like the animal kingdom had lost one of its greatest advocates but I think you can help fill that void! Congradulations, you are an amazing person.

website - http://www.savetheseas.webs.com
email - savetheseas@live.co.uk

I had the pleasure to watch your movie a while ago when i read about it in a magazine. being a regular diver, I have always had a fascination with sharks. Whats happening over there is a shame and more should be done to stop it. Having said that, every time i go on a diving live-a-board i always bring a copy of ‘Sharkwater’ to try and raise awareness among other divers. Keep up the good work
Rob you setting the way for the future!

(Oh and some1 needs to slap William Goh, i mean reeducate him)

I’d like to suggest that your main web site Sharkwater contains a section about the status of the various countries and their regulations concerning long line fishing and shark fining. Perhaps if we knew which countries are doing the right things we could encourage tourism there but boycott countries that have yet to join the ranks of countries fighting this problem.

Also you web site could have a link to join a formal facebook or myspace advocacy group.

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