Sharkwater

Would a documentary by a pretty boy gain your interest? Certainly! Sharkwater happens to be a directorial debut by a pretty American boy whose affinity towards the big white shark began when he was only eight.

Tracing his adventures across the continents, the filmmaker is able to depict the injustice hurled upon the helpless sharks which are killed only for their fins. No prizes to guessing who are those depicted as the real savages. Human beings, the third world country and of course Asians. As with many Western films, Asians are not portrayed in a positive light.

Wedding dinners where couples serve shark’s fins as a mark of wealth, consumption of sharks for our selfish desires of health enhancement and simply making a huge profit from the cruel killings of the sharks. Not that I do not feel sharks have the shorter end of the stick as compared to humans. But the portrayal of the hunter becoming the hunted, where the prey became the predator came on a bit too strong.

With clever editing, the filmmaker makes a sharks fin company director appear silly in his defence to kill sharks. Granted he did interview this Singaporean couple (easily spotted with their heavy Singaporean accent), he totally misses the point about the hardships by the boats people out at the tumultuous seas, away from their families, ekeing out a living by fishing for sharks, in the hope of feeding their families back on shore.

But then again, why would an American, a first world citizen, so carefree, so educated, so well-to-do, so American, understand the hardships and struggles of the third world? I am asking too much here, aren’t I?

I certainly am not condoning the consumption of sharks, nor am I going to stop eating sharks fins. At least I came out of the cinema wiser and more informed. At least I know that in the process of watching the documentary, another XX number of sharks had perished under the cruel harpoons of mercenary fishermen.