It’s been two years of scientific research, legal inquiries, freedom of information requests, speaking to experts, personal attacks from the government bodies that run these programs and documentation of what’s happening in the water. Then I had to edit hours and hours of footage that documents the atrocities happening in Australia’s ocean, watching it over and over. I’m mentally spent, but the upcoming release of the film is just the start of the push to change these programs, so I must keep going.

I don’t have one of those lightbulb moment stories that led me here. I just remember being constantly exposed to the ocean in small ways, and always loving it. I visited an aquarium when I was very young where you could go in a perspex tunnel underneath sharks and I was mesmerised. I remember going to the beach throughout the school holidays to kick a football around and bodyboard. I loved the sand, the salt water, the waves and that fresh sea breeze that would briefly permeate the hot Australian summer. I remember loving David Attenborough documentaries and absolutely hating fishing the one time I tried it. The two big catalysts for me happened in my twenties, when I started scuba diving and I started watching more conservation documentaries. The combination of being under the surface for up to an hour at a time, and seeing all these amazing things that most people would maybe never see – except on their dinner plates – plus being exposed to films such as Blackfish and Sharkwater made me realise that I had to do something.

I knew I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how or which area of conservation to focus on. When I found it, I was so wildly embarrassed that it had been under my nose the entire time without my knowledge. The beaches I used to holiday at as a child were outlined by a ‘shark nets’. I, much like most of Australia, assumed these were some sort of barrier that kept sharks away from the beach and shallower waters. When I found out their actual purpose, I was mortified. Each shark net is only 183m long and 6m deep, sitting in 12m of water, and there are only 11 on the 30km+ of beaches on the Gold Coast. It’s clear that sharks can swim under and around these nets very easily, so they aren’t a barrier, which begs the question – what are they for? The reality is that they exist solely to catch and kill sharks. They are fishing nets. Nothing more, nothing less.