The legacy of Rob Stewart lives on with Sharkwater: Extinction — and it's crucial we learn from it

On January 31, 2017, Canadian filmmaker and conservationist Rob Stewart passed away doing what he loved: diving in the ocean as part of a mission to bring awareness to global shark hunting and its impact on the ocean.

Stewart was in the Florida Keys shooting the sequel to his landmark 2006 documentary Sharkwater when he vanished during a expedition. A few days later, his body was recovered and an autopsy would ultimately reveal he had suffered from acute hypoxia due to a lack of oxygen in his equipment. But despite the stunning grief they were all experiencing, Stewart's collaborators immediately vowed to continue his mission for him.

"I was with him when he passed, and so it was it was gut-wrenching as you can imagine," Brock Cahill, a diver, activist and friend of Rob's for over a decade, tells CBC Arts. "At that point, I was sitting on board the vessel and made a promise to his soul that we would continue this mission and finish the project."

It was a promise that neither Cahill nor the rest of Stewart's team took lightly.

"I don't if any of us really know exactly how it happened," says Julie Andersen, a passionate grassroots activist and marketing consultant who had been working with Stewart for 11 years. "Right after we lost him we all came together. There were so many of us that just came out of the woodwork. Within the first week or two that we'd lost him, we knew we were continuing his movement and we knew we were continuing his movie. We all connected on the loss and also the hope of being able to finish something that he started."

Nearly two years later, their mission has certainly been completed as Sharkwater: Extinction opens across Canada this weekend — in more theatres than any Canadian documentary has ever been released in. And with it, the messages of Rob Stewart's life's work will find their way across the county once more.

"There's the message on the surface, and then there's the message underneath," Andersen says. "And the message on the surface obviously is to become aware as consumers. At the end of the day, you vote every time you spend a dollar. So make sure you know what you're buying and make sure that you know you're buying things that are actually supporting the planet and not decimating it. In this case, it's everyday products that contain sharks."

But Andersen believes that deep down the film has a secondary message that's even more powerful: that we can all be the hero he was.

Rob believed everybody had a superpower and could be a hero.- Julie Andersen

"Rob believed everybody had a superpower and could be a hero," she says. "I think that was so amazing about being with him and so empowering. He brought out the best in all of us, and really I think what he would want is for everybody to do something for what they're passionate about. He used to have a saying: 'Take what you're good at and take what you're passionate about and smash them together — and live a life of purpose.' And I think really what that boils down to is everyone can do something to make this planet a better place. And we all need to act now in order to really address what's going on with the planet."

"This time in our history is crucial," adds Cahill. "There's never been more of a time for people to step up and into the challenge and becoming a hero and saving the planet. Each one of us has a part in that journey, so I hope that this will inspire people to find their part in it. If it's not sharks, maybe it's something else. But whatever it is, I hope that they recognize it and that Rob's example will provide enough inspiration for them to launch."

Besides seeing Sharkwater: Extinction, Andersen and Cahill have plenty of suggestions for how folks can get started on their own mission.

"It can be overwhelming, because there's so many things we need to do in order to save the planet," Andersen says. "There's so much coming at us at once. But there's very easy things that you can do."

Her first suggestion is going to sharkwater.com, where there is a list of "10 easy ways to save sharks" — which starts with simply understanding what shark is in.

"I think that's one of the big takeaways from the movie," she says. "Even for me as a shark conservationist, to find that I had shark products in my home — in my makeup, in my lip gloss, in my sunscreen, in my pet's food...It's absolutely insane and they have created a whole billion dollar industry around shark products."

"There's 18 different names for shark meat that doesn't include the word 'shark'. So you go to a restaurant and you're ordering rock salmon — guess what, you're eating shark. It's even in imitation crab. So we've created a very easy way to understand what shark is in and then also support legislation to ban to import and export of sharks."

Cahill's suggestion is to take a second and just thinking to yourself: "What do I care about in the world? What is my love and my passion?"

"It's going to be different for everybody," he says. "A lot folks — I hope — will say it's the ocean. As we all know, we can't survive without the ocean. So we need a lot of people to make that their passion. But whatever your passion might be, the most important thing is to define what you care about and then to define what the challenges that face that. This will give you a road map of sorts where you can start to figure out how to become an activist, and that's the most beautiful thing that can happen on this planet. It gives your life a massive amount of purpose."

It's without question Rob Stewart found extraordinary purpose in his short life, and that will live on for some time.  

"His legacy will be defined by what happens after the fact, and the effect that he has even beyond the physical form —which is going to be massive," Cahill says. "He's the kind of stuff that legends are made of." 

Sharkwater: Extinction. Directed by Rob Stewart. Opens October 19th across Canada. www.sharkwater.com