Madison Stewart is changing the narrative by showing that sharks’ importance goes way beyond terrorizing and biting humans as we see at the movies.Project Hiu/Supplied
Cold-blooded hunters with dagger-like teeth and lightning speed, out to kill: That’s the image movies like the Oscar-winning Jaws paint of one of the ocean’s greatest predators – sharks.
They are to be feared and, ultimately, to be destroyed. And that’s exactly what happens not only on the the movie screen but also off. A hundred million sharks are killed every year by humans, and overfishing has led to a 70-per-cent decline in shark populations globally over the past 50 years.
Four eco-tourism experiences for ocean-lovers
Diver Madison Stewart is changing the narrative, showing that sharks’ importance goes way beyond terrorizing and biting humans as we see at the movies. The animals play a crucial role in maintaining species balance in ocean ecosystems.
The 24-year-old Stewart first walked amongst dead sharks in Indonesia – home to the world’s largest shark fishery and around 200 shark species– as part of the crew filming the documentary Blue, about the plight of today’s marine life. Stewart came across the local shark fishermen in the Tanjung Luar markets of Lombok, where hundreds make a living from the global billion-dollar shark trade. (East Asian countries account for some of the top shark-fin consumption globally, with EU member states dominating half the trade – with Spain being the largest exporter.)
The fishermen welcomed Stewart, an Australian native who grew up on a sailboat and has been diving with sharks since age 12, into their boats and their lives. She would return a year later to start Project Hiu (“hiu” means shark in Indonesian), an agency offering ocean tours to visitors, in the process protecting sharks by helping their killers – providing them alternative income through tourism.
“The desire for change, a few small wins and an ongoing supply of passion for sharks and the natural world is what drives me,” Stewart wrote in an article featured on Smithsonian.
Stewart spoke with The Globe and Mail about working with the fisherman to bring Project Hiu to life, transforming villains into heroes and using tourism to change a harmful industry.
The 24-year-old Stewart first walked amongst dead sharks in Indonesia as part of the crew filming the documentary Blue, about the plight of today’s marine life.Project Hiu/Supplied
What do you love the most about swimming with sharks?
How humbling it is. As humans, we’ve established so much control over our natural world. But sharks are that one thing that we can’t control.
These days, most of my work is with dead sharks. Or we’ll see baby sharks on the boat, but we’re not going to see the big sharks that I’m used to. I kind of like that better. I would rather be with sharks that are getting injured and killed and working on making a difference there than just enjoying them.
You went to Indonesia in 2017 to film Blue, the documentary. How did that lead to Project Hiu?
I felt like we filmed it and we left. I decided I was going to go back to the same place.
The project would not exist if we didn’t have a relationship with the fishermen. That has been one of the most important parts. I learned a lot about the kids [of the fishermen]. The whole purpose of the project, the foundation of the project, is that we find another use for the boat. The boat itself can be put into use in tourism – take people freediving and snorkelling – and that way we know that no one’s fishing sharks. It’s also important for the fishermen’s pride that they’re still doing work.
Give us the latest update on your work.
We’ve opened a shop in Indonesia, the home-base for our tours and merch. This means that I don’t have to be there for the fishermen to have an income. I’m running trips in June and July and I have trips every other day. Day trips involve a full day on the boat visiting coral-reef diving sites, paddle boarding and surfing. Most of the tourism in Lombok is around surfing. So a lot of people coming there already have a deep respect for the ocean, will walk past and see Project Hiu. I think the highlight is knowing that 100 per cent of what they’re paying is going to fishermen’s income. People have been really supportive.
Before the pandemic we had six boats. Right now we can only afford one boat, which saves about 60 sharks a month. We have to be competitive with our prices because they’re getting paid a lot for sharks.
We also managed to tag tiger sharks and commence a bit of scientific research with the help of the fishermen. Tiger sharks have never been tagged in Indonesia. Our hope was that if we figure out the movements of the sharks, we can concentrate our efforts on certain times of the year to give those sharks the best shot at survival.
Ms. Stewart is an Australian native who grew up on a sailboat and has been diving with sharks since age 12.Rambo Estrada/Project Hiu/Supplied
If the shark fishermen aren’t the villain behind the overfishing of sharks, who is?
This is not an issue of people wanting to kill sharks. This is a socio-economic issue. This is about people being exploited. It’s important in the conservation industry that we look at compassion as a tactic as opposed to hatred. Very few of us want to go into the tiger’s den, meet the people responsible, put in the effort and the emotional time into figuring out how we can truly help, then see the bigger picture and get it done.
I feel super lucky that that’s how Project Hiu worked out. And I’m not perfect – it took me ages to figure out that that was the way to do it as well. I can’t take credit for it because my inspiration from Project Hiu came from other parts of the world. There are fishermen in Mexico that completely changed their boats to conduct whale-watching tours because they were making more money from that. So it’s been done.
Why should people care about saving sharks?
We live in a society that does often rely on exploiting certain groups of people for us to get what we want to achieve. Consumers, no matter where you are, have an impact on what happens in the ocean. It’s really important for people to be educated about it to make sure that they’re impacting it positively.
This interview has been edited and condensed.