Madison Stewart: SHARKS DESERVE RESPECT

SHE SWIMS WITH SHARKS AND IS ON A QUEST TO SAVE THEM

-  Jodie Wolf

Mass murder, dismembered marine life, bloodied bodies of the creatures you care about lying at your feet, desperately hoping that your voice is heard and your message lands. Trying to evoke change.

For Australian activist Madison Stewart, who’s also known online as ‘Shark Girl’, advocating for the hunted creatures she loves is all in a day’s work. Based in Lombok, Indonesia, Madison has dedicated her life to protecting sharks.

Madison founded Project Hiu (Hiu meaning ‘shark’ in Indonesian) in 2017 to help minimise shark fishing, and instead employ the fishermen and their boats in tourism. Madison says this program not only saves the sharks, but gives the fishermen an alternative income. “We often forget about the people under socio-economic pressure to fish,” explains Madison. “I started Project Hiu because I wanted to help the sharks – and the fishermen.”

Having grown up diving the Great Barrier Reef (she was a certified diver by the age of 11 and was brought up on a sailboat), the 29-year-old noticed the numbers of sharks declining in Australian waters as a teen and reflects, “When I was 14, I started homeschooling so that me and my dad, who raised me, could go diving more. I got this underwater video camera and was planning to make cool videos about sharks.”