Rob Stewart Sharkwater Analysis

After watching Rob Stewarts film Sharkwater I have gained a keen insight into the cruelty and lucrative trade that surrounds our precious oceans. Threats arrive to the ecology of the world when humans use poor fishing methods like bottom trawling and intentionally hunting down very specific animals in astounding numbers (Kempster). This is because methods like “finning” sharks take an unnatural amount of sharks out of the natural food cycle that has been so delicately crafted over millions of years, and with a decrease in the number of predators in an ecosystem you will find that there will be heavy increase in the number of smaller fish and medium sized fish that were once fed on by sharks. By having this influx of lower-food-chain animals surviving due to fewer threats be sharks you will find more animals feeding on plant life on the ocean floor which supplies a substantial portion of the world’s oxygen production which could have dramatic effects on the human population (Stewart). Bottom trawling is just as scary as hunting down specific animals because you are basically raking up everything in the ocean floor to try to catch some fish; it’s the epitome of laziness and carelessness when it comes to fishing. Bottom trawling should also be banned along with hunting down specific marine animals because “Bottom trawling often leads to overfishing because the gear is not selective”, this means that they are not only destroying the ocean floor but they are also killing unwanted fish and disrupting the ecology of ocean regions throughout the world (Margot L. Stiles) . With all the advances in our society today and the way we are much more effective in tracking populations of animals nations should all come together throughout the world to establish what should and should not be fished to lessen the problem of overfishing. …show more content…
The criteria should be used to make that determinations between what should and should not be fished would be gathered by scientist all over the world and delegated on at quarterly meetings. What this would effectively do is keep the fragile and direly important food chain of the ocean intact and decrease the chance of major ecological changes (Encyclopædia Britannica). It is evident that fishermen from different …show more content…
Unfortunately this seems to leave a loophole open for the finning community because by allowing one shark to still be hunted those who are still engulfed in the black-market shark fin trade can still sneak in fins from other banned sharks. From my observations the largest threat to all animal species on the planet is human greed and over consumption. I do agree with the sentiments made in Sharkwater about how future generations will look back on us as barbarians because we are fully aware of the ecological impacts we are having by hunting and killing animals to extinction just for monetary gain and to make a quick-dollar on “the backs” of other animals (cruel pun, I know). I can say just from writing this paper I learned much more about the over fishing situation that we have in the world but I was unaware on how often sharks were killed and mutilated for their fins to be sold in Asian market places. I think the most valuable thing I will take out of this paper and watching the movie was that sharks really are not evil but sorely misunderstood gentle giants portrayed as cruel and savage animals by the world