[A crowdfunding page](https://www.gofundme.com/search-rescue-for-rob-stewart) aimed at locating Canadian director Rob Stewart&#x2014;who went missing Tuesday afternoon while diving in the Florida Keys&#x2014;has raised nearly $100,000 in just over 24 hours, and is now just $30,000 short of its goal.

According the [_National Post_](http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/u-s-coast-guard-searches-for-missing-diver-off-florida-believed-to-be-canadian-director-of-sharkwater), 37-year-old Stewart&#x2014;director of hit documentary _Sharkwater_, which exposed the global corruption of the world's shark-hunting market&#x2014;disappeared around 5:15PM while near Alligator Reef, where he was underwater filming the Queen of Nassau shipwreck.

For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth. 

Driven by passion fed from a lifelong fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas.

Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.

http://www.sharkwater.com/

Sharkwater Trailer - HD

At the time of his disappearance, Stewart's sister says that one of his diving partners lost consciousness and had to be recovered by the team's boat. In the commotion, the boat lost sight of Stewart, but the sister is optimistic the filmmaker may still be alive due to the calm weather and the quick response on the part of the community.

"We've learned that people can survive for more than 72 hours in this water because it's warm, which is wonderful news," she said.  
"The conditions are bright and calm, which is perfect for searching. &#x2026; I'm hanging on to the good news we're hearing."  
While the US Coast Guard has deployed a small team consisting of a cutter, a boat, a helicopter, and a small plane to look for Stewart, the crowdfunding page setup by Stewart's family is said to pay for the expenses of as many private volunteers as possible to help assist in the search effort.

Protest boat Ady Gil destroyed in collision with Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2.
Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson has accused Japanese whalers of a high seas hit-and-run, disputing claims a collision with one of its speedboats was accidental.

Six crew members aboard the $1.5 million anti-whaling ship the Ady Gil were rescued, one with broken ribs, after it and the Japanese whalers' ship the Shonan Maru 2 collided in remote Antarctic waters.

The high-tech trimaran was sliced in half in the collision.

Japan's Fisheries Agency has blamed The Ady Gil for the crash, saying it slowed suddenly while crossing in front of the Shonan Maru.

But Mr Watson today labelled the claim ridiculous, saying the whaling ship deliberately rammed the boat in a high seas "hit and run".

"The Ady Gil was stationary at the time it was struck," Mr Watson told Macquarie Radio.

"The Shonan Maru did a quick turn and came in real fast, they were aiming for the cockpit, where the crew were, and fortunately we got the engines in reverse and backed up just enough so that the front of the ship was torn off instead of hitting the cockpit.

"They were trying to sink the ship. We put out a mayday distress signal and the Japanese refused to respond - it was a hit and run really."

Mr Watson said it would be impossible to salvage the Ady Gill, meaning a loss of $2 million for the Sea Shepherd organisation.

A spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo, Glenn Inwood, contradicted Sea Shepherd's account of the incident.

"The (Ady Gil) skipper put the boat into full sting to try to cut the Shonan Maru off," he told ABC Radio.

"You can see that the Shonan Maru is moving to the port to try and avoid a collision and there's no avoiding the collision with the Ady Gil.

"It's a fast boat, she heads off full steam in front of it and miscalculates. So it's no wonder that it came to the grief that it has."

Mr Watson, asked if the environmental group would press charges against the whalers, he said "there's no law down here, there's no way to bring charges against anybody".

"Japan does what it wants, where it wants. They're killing these whales in violation of international law. And if they were to injure or kill any of us, their government will justify and defend their actions."

He again called on the federal government to send naval ships to stop the whalers exploiting the southern ocean whale sanctuary, which falls in Australia's Antarctic Territory waters.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett on Wednesday said he had no plans to send a vessel to police the situation, instead calling on both parties to exercise restraint.

"Peter Garrett promised before he was elected that he would come down here and stop the illegal Japanese whaling activities - we're still waiting for him to do so," he said.

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt called for the Australian government to immediately send a non-military observation ship to the southern oceans.

He called on both the whalers and activists to show restraint, and abide by international maritime law.

"It's time to get the ship down there, a non-military vessel, by the end of the week," he said.

"It should be a non-military observation vessel with two purposes ... to chronicle, to record the slaughter of Australian whales in Australian waters so the world can see it, and ... to act as a calming vessel, so it can help calm the situation." Source: AP News

Anti-whaling protester's boat collide with Japanese whaling ship

One of the more notable individuals involved in the the family's search is marine activist Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society&#x2014;a direct-to-action anti-poaching group that became notorious for its uses of physical force to stop Japanese whaling fleets. [Watson said on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/BP9ckopjYsp/?taken-by=captainpaulwatson&hl=en) that they are co-operating with the Coast Guard and trying not to get in the way of their search.

_Follow Jake Kivanc_ _[on Twitter.](http://twitter.com/kivancjake)_

FYI.

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A Crowdfunding Page Has Been Started to Locate Missing Canadian ‘Sharkwater’ Director

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

A Crowdfunding Page Has Been Started to Locate Missing Canadian ‘Sharkwater’ Director

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