Filmmaker's Journal: guest posting on Oceans4Ever's "Summer Sharktakular"

It's been said that the future belongs to the young. If so, then here is an example of hope: ten-year old Alexa, with the help of her mother, Cindy, have established the blog Oceans4Ever. It succeeds in bringing important issues to light without hyper-opinionated rants and complex scientific jargon. Just straightforward talk from the perspective of someone who is living with the world we adults have given her, warts and all.

Right now Alexa is running a Summer Sharktakular with contests along with information and guests posts from a wide range of sources. I was asked to contribute a guest post about shark filmmaking and I was most pleased and honored to oblige. I addressed the responsibility that the nature filmmaker has towards getting the story right when it comes to sharks:

"... the truth is that sharks are predators and scavengers – extremely important predators and scavengers that help maintain the proper balance and health of the marine ecology.

The oceans cannot survive without them.

The message I try to convey to my audience is: you may not love them, but you must appreciate them. You can’t enjoy the jackrabbit or the deer without appreciating the coyote or the wolf. And you can’t enjoy the colorful reef fish or the comical seals without appreciating the shark."

My hat's off to Alexa and Cindy for Oceans4Ever! We are standing very close to a precipice but its because of the efforts of young people like Alexa that, in that perilous moment, we might spare ourselves that long fall.

"Shark films can be exciting, they can be entertaining, but they must be on-target. We owe it to the sharks; we owe it to ourselves – for our futures are intertwined."

Check out the Ocean4Ever blog.