With the looming threat of a commercial shark finning operation being established in the Bahamas, filmmaker Joe Romeiro has chosen to use his skills to show sharks in a different light in his short film “Nina Salerosa”. In the film renowned dive master Christina Zenato interacts very closely with a group of sharks during a feeding session. The Caribbean reef sharks in the video appear as beautiful, graceful creatures and this image helps to overturn the perception of sharks as being aggressive, and to create sympathy with their possible plight.

Meanwhile, the Bahamas National Trust, in partnership with the Pew Environmental Group, has launched a campaign to create legislation that would ban finning, and nearly a dozen environmental groups have begun lobbying for the sharks. In addition, the online petition calling for legal  protection of Bahamian sharks has attracted nearly 6000 signatures. If you haven’t added yours yet though, please do so now.