When I was attending the Eastern Academy of Scuba Education (EASE) in 2007, a little known film named Sharkwater had just been released in south Florida. Behind the film was a man named Rob Stewart, unknown to everyone at the academy, including the head instructors who had spent their entire lives traveling the world and diving. Since we were all avid divers and training to become instructors, one night a few of us set out to watch the film. We were all left in awe and the film changed my entire view of sharks and oceanic ecosystems. A few days later during a training dive, we spotted an 11 foot great hammerhead shark and suddenly I knew shark diving would be an important part of my future. It was after completing training at EASE, I began training under the now defunct Beautiful Ocean’s Academy in Montreal, as a coral reef biology instructor for divers. Stewart, a Toronto native, had loved sharks since he was a kid. In fact he loved them so much, that he became a biologist and underwater photographer so he could learn more about them. After seeing the plight of sharks worldwide first hand, he scrounged enough money together to produce a film and nearly lost his life in the making. Sharkwater told the story of underground, illegal fisheries that were finning sharks and focused on groups around the world dedicated to stopping them. The film went on to win numerous awards and Stewart set off across the globe, taking the film and its message right to China. A few years ago I heard that Stewart was working on a new film, tentatively titled Revolution. Yesterday, to celebrate Earth Day, Revolution was released in the United States and made available for download. 
The way Rob Stewart weaves the story of Sharkwater into the story of Revolution is impressive and his keen knack for drawing the viewer in, right at the beginning, sets the tone and pace of Revolution. The film beings where Sharkwater left off, with Stewart jet-setting around the globe, meeting with officials and youth to spread the message of shark conservation. It’s when he arrives in China, a major epicenter of the shark debate (due to the consumption of shark fin soup by wealthy Chinese) that the film takes a major turn. While speaking at Sharkwater’s Chinese premiere, an audience member asks Stewart what the point of saving sharks is, when it’s predicted that worldwide fisheries will collapse within 50 years.… More:
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