New feature film tackles Western trade in toxic sharks (Watch Trailer)
“Sharks: In Deep Water is a film to change things,” explains Producer Matt Brierley. The film’s global premiere is 8th Nov 2022 and tickets can be obtained through www.sharksindeepwater.com.
Sharks matter. Without the sea’s top predators ocean ecosystems collapse. We are perilously close to creating a tipping point beneath the waves – in many places ocean systems have already collapsed, taking with them people’s livelihoods and their primary source of protein.
This is a topic close to many people’s hearts – but it is also an issue that conjures images of shark finning and Eastern markets. Sharks: In Deep Water tells a new story.
Laws to protect sharks from finning at sea have tragically backfired. Today sharks must have their fins removed on land. That has sparked a global trade in shark meat. As top of the food chain, sharks bioaccumulate human toxicants in concentrations harmful to their health – and ours if we eat them.
Undercover investigation by Sharks: In Deep Water found sharks in Western ports and on menus in high-end UK restaurants. The film conducted DNA analysis of battered fish sold in UK fish and chip shops. The results proved conclusively that Endangered shark is sold under confusing names. The results claimed headlines across the UK.
“Shark livers are also harvested – typically from deep water sharks science knows very little about. Again these are Western market forces not Eastern,” Matt said. “For too long we’ve told shark conservation as a simple story. Sharks are finned at sea by Eastern countries. But the story has moved on and that old narrative is excusing the Western nations who are fishing the shark and selling it – typically – through the Port of Vigo, Spain. The UK and EU are hugely complicit in the greatest underwater extinction event of our time.”
Sharks: In Deep Water is a film that has been designed to educate, inspire and – ultimately – to make a difference. It is uplifting and joyful at times, sad at others, but crucially it is hopeful and an authentic telling of the issues facing sharks present day.
Join Matt, Louise and Samantha and their team as they journey from Morocco to Continental Europe and on into the UK, documenting a trade in sharks closer to home than you ever imagined possible – and finding ways to spark positive change.
Producer Matt Brierley has worked across a suite of Natural History programming including Planet Earth II, Blue Planet II and The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet.
To watch the film’s trailer, get tickets to the premiere or learn more about the film visit www.sharksindeepwater.com. Details of future screenings will also be announced there.
The film team would like to thank Primordial Radio, Bristol Green Capital, Greenpeace, Exeter University, Manchester University, The Daily Mirror, the MCSUK and those who generously supported and publicised their crowdfunding campaigns including Scubaverse.
Producer Matt Brierley is an award-winning Natural History filmmaker who has worked on programmes including Emmy-winning The Serengeti Rules, Attenborough’s Blue Planet II, Planet Earth II and Wild Isles, and Prince Williams’ The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet. He’s especially passionate about birds, elephants, dinosaurs and, of course, sharks.
