Witness

Sharks of Kuwait

Little is being done to preserve the once thriving marine life of one of the world’s busiest waterways.

Filmmaker: Zeina Aboul Hosn

The Arabian Gulf is one of the world’s busiest waterways. Supertankers criss-cross the sea, carrying a quarter of the world’s crude oil but polluting the water.

Cranes mark yet another mega construction project invading the fragile coastal eco-system. It is a potential environmental disaster, but little is being done to preserve the diversity of its marine life.

Fifty years ago, the Arabian Gulf was full of sharks, but now no one knows how many are left.

Kuwaitis who once lived off the Gulf’s fish and pearls seem not to know or care. Only a few individual voices and small NGOs call for conservation.

Environmental filmmaker Zeina Aboul Hosn joined an expedition to search for the forgotten sharks of the Gulf.  She and expedition leader Richard Peirce find sharks lying dead in Kuwait’s fish market, their fins cut off for soup.

Zeina had to dive into an aquarium in front of gawping tourists to film her first live shark before she finally got to swim with a small group of sharks in the wild waters, bringing us the full emotion of this story of devastation.

Sharks of Kuwait can be seen from Thursday, December, 23, 2010.