Worth Diving For

Worth Diving For

A film that dives below the misconceptions about sharks, to highlight their vital role in our ecosystem and protect them from the threat of extinction.

Sasha, will attempt to free dive with Tiger sharks without any experience and experts. A camera her only equipment, Sasha will show that a sharks' natural tendency is not to attack humans – despite their media reputation - as being free and bare among them allows for a display of their normal non-aggressive behaviour. Diver and shark become fellow sea creatures, a closeness of human and wild animal that highlights the possibility of symbiosis. Even though Sasha has no direct experience of diving with sharks, she trusts in their true behaviour to the extent that she is willing to free dive among them to highlight their plight.

Why: Sharks are ancient and fascinating creatures that have been swimming in our oceans for 400 million years (that’s over 100 million years before the dinosaurs). They play an essential role in the overall health of the oceans by controlling the population of healthy marine ecosystems, leading to greater biodiversity. They also have extraordinary immune systems and studies into why this is could lead to cures for fatal human diseases such as cancer. Despite all of this, around 100 million sharks are killed for their fins every year, used primarily to make shark fin soup or for beauty products. There are obvious alternatives to fishing sharks, especially within tourism, but as sharks are generally misunderstood, there is less desire to protect them. The truth is, we need sharks to keep our oceans healthy, and healthy oceans are vital to our existence.