Toronto filmmaker’s body found near dive in Florida
The body of a missing Toronto filmmaker has been found.
The U.S. Coast Guard said in a tweet Friday that the body of 37year-old Rob Stewart was reportedly found about 90 metres from where the filmmaker vanished while diving off the coast of Florida.
A family spokesperson confirmed the report, according to the Toronto Star.
He had been missing since Tuesday, when he and another diver surfaced after his third dive of the day.
The Coast Guard, which planned to suspend its search on Friday evening, says the body was found in about 60 metres of water.
The last time anyone saw Stewart, he had just returned to the surface Tuesday after a dive about 70 metres down near Alligator Reef in the Florida Keys. His diving partner lost consciousness as he got into the boat, Pisces, his sister previously told The Canadian Press.
Coast Guard Capt. Jeffrey Janszen said as others tended to that man and gave him oxygen, Stewart disappeared, and his family believes Stewart may have lost consciousness as well.
The boat quickly called for help and the U.S. Coast responded.
Stewart was in Florida filming a followup movie to his 2006 documentary “Sharkwater,” called “Sharkwater Extinction,” according to his sister Alexandra Stewart.
He is also known for his documentaries that include “Revolution” and his memoir “Save the Humans.” He devoted his career to warning the world about threats facing sharks, other ocean life and humanity in general. His 2006 documentary “Sharkwater,” which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, became an international hit and prompted people around the world to lobby their governments for bans on shark finning.
Stewart said he and his colleagues risked their lives to make the film. They visited a Costa Rican warehouse that trafficked in illegal shark fin and confronted poachers on the high seas.
“This century we’re facing some pretty catastrophic consequences of our actions,” he said in a 2012 interview with The Canadian Press.
“We’re facing a world by 2050 that has no fish, no reefs, no rainforest, and nine billion people on a planet that already can’t sustain seven billion people. So it’s going to be a really dramatic century unless we do something about it.”