Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Canadian who filmed sharks goes missing while diving off Keys
A Canadian documentary filmmaker and experienced diver whose credits include “Sharkwater,” an examination of the global shark-hunting trade that won multiple awards at the 2006 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, has gone missing while diving off the Florida Keys.
Rob Stewart, 37, of Toronto, was reported missing at around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Stewart had been diving near Alligator Reef, known for the Alligator Reef Light, which rises out of the water several miles into the Atlantic Ocean off Islamorada.
Search-and-rescue efforts, which according to a Coast Guard spokesman spanned an 11-mile by 25-mile
area, had turned up nothing by early Wednesday afternoon. Along with the Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the Key Largo Volunteer Fire Dive Team were also helping in the search.
According to Stewart’s father, Brian Stewart, of Toronto, his son was diving with two to three other divers including one who passed out after resurfacing. Brian Stewart said there was the possibility Rob had passed out as well before presumably slipping under the surface. But he also said Wednesday morning he didn’t know what had happened beyond the fact something must’ve gone wrong — and that he hoped his son was still out there on the water.
U.S. Coast Guard Spokesman Jonathan Lally said Rob Stewart had been among the crew on a vessel named Pisces. Lally said Stewart, seen by the boat’s crew after resurfacing, disappeared when the boat turned around to pick him up.
Lally said he didn’t have any further information about a possible cause or the circumstances surrounding Stewart’s disappearance because the Coast Guard was concerned solely with finding him.
“Our focus is on searching for Mr. Stewart,” Lally said.
According to a Facebook post from Paul Watson, who worked with Stewart on “Sharkwater” and is founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Stewart was using a rebreather, which effectively enables a diver to continue breathing their own air instead taking breaths from a tank and exhaling back into the water. For underwater photographers, the advantage of rebreathers is that there are no bubbles to scare away the underwater sealife. They are also popular with deep divers looking to spend long periods of time underwater.
“When last seen Rob was wearing a drysuit and a rebreather apparatus,” Watson wrote in the Wednesday afternoon post. “Hopefully the drysuit will keep him afloat but the fear is that he sank near where he was last seen. Divers with deep water experience are participating in the search.”
The elder Stewart, who with his wife and son-inlaw flew aboard a private plane from Toronto to be in the Keys on Wednesday while the search effort continued, said his son has thousands of hours of diving experience and is certified at the highest levels. Brian Stewart said they were diving in about 230 feet of water at the wreckage of the Queen of Nassau in the vicinity of Alligator Reef while shooting his latest project, “Sharkwater: Extinction.”
“Rob is a very, very experienced diver,” Brian Stewart said.
The family was hoping that anyone with deep diving or search and rescue experience in the area of the Keys would volunteer in the effort to find Rob. Asked if the official search and rescue effort was welcoming volunteers, the Coast Guard’s Lally didn’t say yes or no, but made it clear a lot of coordination needs to take place in a search and rescue operation and that the safety of the rescue crews, who need to operate in a safe environment, was the main priority beyond finding Mr. Stewart.
“You don’t want search efforts to become a danger where now you have another incident where a rescue would have to take place within a rescue,” Lally said.
Stewart grew up in Toronto and lives in Los Angeles, his dad said. He also knows Florida well, having also grown up at the family’s Sanibel Island home.
“His mission in life is to save the world’s oceans from the devastation being wreaked upon them,” Brian Stewart said.
According to the Internet Movie Database, “Sharkwater” was released in 2006 and won several awards. Those honors included three at the 2006 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival including People’s Choice Award for Best Film, Jury Award for Best Documentary, and a Spirit of the Independent Award.
Stewart’s other films include Revolution (2012) and The Fight For Bala (2015).
“His mission in life is to save the world’s oceans from the devastation being wreaked upon them.” Brian Stewart, missing diver’s father