Shark Words

Photo courtesy of Diego Garcia, Discovery Canada, Daily Planet Growing up in Florida, Gruber had a deep appreciation for all of the beautiful tourist girls who went there looking for romance. Miami Beach was always a tourist destination, and in the late fifties, there were plenty of shows as there are in Las Vegas now. Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence were famous singers of that era who also staged musical shows. They put one together called Holiday in Japan, with chorus lines, and scores of dancers and singers, and brought it to Miami Beach—since Gruber was such a charmer, he naturally met a showgirl and dated her. Gruber recalls, “. . .And this friend of mine, Merle, had the impression that I had a predilection for Japanese girls, because I was dating this show girl, but she was not correct—I had a predilection for girls, not just Japanese ones.” Thinking that he was fascinated by Japanese girls, Merle told him about Marie Mariko Hirata, a third generatio...

While I was in Tahiti trying to get my sharks protected, the idea that I could put their story in a little movie and broadcast it far and wide across the world via the Internet, would have seemed like science fiction, yet ten years later, its not only possible, it doesn't even seem fantastic any more! So here it is, my own movie about my beloved sharks, created with actual footage about them, who were being finned while I tried to protect them.