sharknado 5 Why a Shark Advocate Went Vegan

What’s this shark guy talking about veganism for? This will be an unpopular video for many people...we don't like change and we don't like to have a way of life called into question. But some discoveries I've made on my journey are worth at least contemplating.

I’ve been speaking about the merits of veganism a lot lately (on my non shark account) so maybe I should stop and explain how I, a person who ate meat his entire life and was raised in an agricultural community in the midwest, came to this state. What’s this have to do with being a shark advocate and does practicing a vegan lifestyle actually affect the fate of sharks?

“Out of sight, out of mind,” is a recurring theme in my work, and it certainly applies here. You can hear people talk about an issue all day long and it may still never really register until you’ve witnessed it for yourself... and even then we have the capacity to turn a blind eye. But bearing witness repeatedly makes reality hard to ignore.

Hearing a statistic such as “ten pounds of murdered animals are discarded for every one pound of targeted animal harvested” is one thing. Witnessing the by catch float down onto your head is another.

Hearing about the destructive practice of long lining and trawling is one thing. Watching a seemingly endless supply of corpses unloaded while you try to eat a seafood sandwich is another.

Both of those examples are taken from real life experiences. I was working as a safety diver on a CBC documentary in the Dry Tortugas when our boat came upon a shrimping boat. It was 2006, I was young and naive and admittedly watched the spectacle unfold with clueless curiosity than horror. Our captain knew the shrimp boat would have by catch, and using that to our advantage to make sure we had sharks to film, we pulled up and offered them beer in exchange for them dumping their by catch overboard while we were in the water. Of course, they thought we were crazy, saying “You’re gonna be in the water? Don’t you know there will be sharks!?” It worked like a charm and all kinds of animals showed up for the feast of discarded by catch…even sea turtles. I didn’t want to think about it at the time, but I can tell you now, without a doubt, I saw at least one sea turtle on the deck of that shrimp boat. Who was I to question these hard working “salt of the earth” men who were just “making a living” as “good ol’ fishermen”?

My God, the horrors that take place on this planet using each of those phrases to mask the truth of what is actually rape for profit.

Fast forward to 2013 when I visited Cape Cod to document OCEARCH’s first big campaign there. I was taking a break on the dock of Chatham Harbor having a seafood sandwich when the boats started dumping loads of sharks as if I were watching trucks unload sand. Following the sharks were seemingly endless amounts of skates and rays.

I made the film ‘Balance’ on this same trip, discussing the role of white sharks in the ocean. In Cape Cod the grey seal population had been successfully recovering (since law prevented us from sending them into extinction.) With the return of the food source came the return of the natural hunters, white sharks (the signs of a recovering food chain were becoming clear by 2009) and it was amazing to see nature’s response of to trying to keep one population in check by the reintroduction of another. Many fishermen weren’t too happy about the seals, who also wanted to eat fish. I couldn’t help but be struck by the irony and hypocrisy of the very vocal fishermen who were demanding a cull of the seals as I watched the horror of what we call sustainable fishing unfold before my eyes. As if on cue, a seal popped his head up in the harbor as the fish were unloaded…his face almost seemed to say, “Can you leave any for me?” Or maybe he was asking for help since a combination of fishing line and rope were cutting deep into his throat.

So it began with seafood. But giving up the food I was raised on?! Beef, chicken, pork!? No way was I giving that up. It was a "way of life". Based on the diet of my upbringing, as far as I was concerned, if I hadn't eaten meat I hadn't eaten.

sharknado 5 Why a Shark Advocate Went Vegan
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Entertainment	Upload TimePublished on 4 Sep 2018

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