Sharkwater Page #8

There is no hope

for the masses of humanity...

...to do anything.

They never have, they never will.

All social change comes

from the passionate intervention...

...of individuals

or small groups of individuals.

Slavery wasn't ended

by any government or any institution.

Women got the right to vote...

...not because of any government.

The civil-rights movement,

the same thing...

India with Mahatma Gandhi,

South Africa with Nelson Mandela.

Again, it's always individuals.

You need those individuals...

...with the passion and the energy

to get involved.

In fact, I don't know...

...of any governments or institutions...

...that are doing anything

to solve any of these problems.

All over the world, though,

I am seeing individuals...

...and non-government organizations

that are passionately involved...

...in protecting ecosystems

and species...

...and that's where I see

some optimism...

...that's where results

are happening.

Okay...

...here we go.

As soon as I was let out

of the hospital...

I started making my way

back to Costa Rica.

Costa Rica was the last place

on Earth I should go.

I would be arrested immediately...

...if they found out I was there.

So I had to sneak in.

I took a boat

from the Galapagos Islands...

...to mainland Ecuador.

My friends in Costa Rica...

...told me not to fly back

into the country...

...that I'd be caught if I did.

I had to avoid any major ports...

...the police and the Coast Guard.

Even if I made it to the coast...

I'd also have to avoid

the shark-fin Mafia.

To avoid capture...

I travelled overland for days...

...using public transportation

and tour buses...

...to get back into the country.

Still going, this bus?

I only narrowly escaped arrest

a few weeks earlier...

...but I had to find a way in...

...and find a way

to help the sharks.

Avoiding arrest and staying

on public buses...

I made it to the coast...

...and entered Puntarenas.

Instead of the shark-fin Mafia

I was expecting to greet me...

...there were protests

in the streets.

Costa Ricans were rallying

against shark finning.

The publicity surrounding our case

brought the shark-finning industry...

...into the spotlight.

We hadn't totally failed

in saving sharks.

We helped awaken a country

and the people.

Costa Ricans were outraged;

...they held protests

against the private docks...

...and spoke out

against the corruption.

The world had started

rallying for sharks.

The police were busy

with the protest...

...and the Mafia was in hiding.

Now I knew I could make it to Cocos

without getting caught.

I found my friends

and we headed back out to sea.

Returning underwater...

...finally I could swim

with sharks again...

...in one of the last places on Earth

where sharks thrive.

Free diving...

I hold my breath and stay calm...

...so they're not afraid of me.

Ever since I was a kid...

I've loved sharks.

They taught me about life...

...and that fear

was something I made up...

...and it wasn't real.

Sharks have been here

since the beginning...

...when there was only primitive life

in the oceans...

...and the land was mostly desert.

They were the top predator...

...influencing any animal to evolve

since their inception.

Sharks have been gods...

...for 400 million years...

...shaping this world...

...for the entire history

of life on land.

Seeing them again...

I knew that they're almost gone.

The killing of sharks...

...is the biggest ecological time bomb

we're going to face pretty soon.

We have to understand

that sharks are the most abundant...

...top predator on this planet,

at over 100 pounds...

...so that tells you something.

Nature created them for a reason.

Now human beings just...

they don't care...

...they kill 100 million, 200 million.

"So what?" You know?

"Sharks are a nuisance,

a dead shark is a good shark...

...let's kill 'em all. "

But if we kill 'em all...

...we destroy all food chains

of an entire marine ecosystem...

...and, well, the majority of our oxygen

comes from the ocean...

...so we should be more careful.

There is no species on this planet

that has ever survived...

...by ignoring

the basic laws of ecology...

...and we're now breaking those basic laws

every day in every way...

...and that's going to mean our own demise

in a very short period of time...

...unless we learn to live harmoniously

with the natural world.

Future generations

are gonna look back on us...

...and they're gonna think of us

as barbarians...

...the same way

we think of slave traders.

That they're gonna look at us

as barbarians for what we're doing...

...the fact that we're burning

all the fossil fuels...

...in a few generations,

that we've wiped out the oceans...

...that we've driven species

to extinction.

And worse - This is the worst part -

we know what we're doing.

The scientists know,

the environmentalists know...

...the companies know

and the general public knows...

...and yet we're allowing ourselves

to do it.

Sharks have lived

in balance with the oceans...

...as the top predator.

Now we are the top predator...

...deciding which species we'll use...

...and which we'll destroy.

I wonder if we've evolved enough...

...to survive as they have.

We depend on the oceans

for oxygen;

...the oceans that sharks control.

If we lose sharks...

...we'll disrupt the oxygen

we need to breathe.

We've only been here

for a few million years...

...and in the last 100 years...

...we've greatly impacted

life in the ocean.

But we also have the power

to change it for the better.

People in Costa Rica

weren't just rallying for sharks.

They were rallying for life...

...and for us.

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