Playing with Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story (2021)

As a very young teen in 1970, I saw Valerie Taylor, her late husband Ron and fellow Australian Rodney Fox for the first time, in the classic documentary "Blue Water, White Death. " I was already hooked to the beauty of the underwater world, but it was here that these 3 inspired my love for Sharks and I followed in their footsteps with my lifelong fight to protect these magnificent creatures.

In this new epic documentary "Playing With Sharks", Valerie takes us on an amazing journey into her own teen years as a spearfishing champion, her romance with the sea and also with Ron, who made her his underwater model and later his wife. We see the couple embarking on an expedition that changed their lives forever. From spearfishing champions, they soon became world famous for their filming and production of underwater documentaries. The Taylors traveled around the world filming sharks and educating the general public about the huge misconception that these awesome creatures are mindless killing machines in a time when sharks were labelled as Man-eaters following the release of "Jaws". They became protectors and defenders of our oceans and the creatures that live in it. Their hard work soon started giving rewards as Australia became the first country in the world to protect the Grey Nurse Shark (Carcharias taurus). This was later followed by conservation measures for: the Potato Cod (Grouper) and Cod hole, The Sea lions, the Coral Sea bird breeding islands, the main breeding grounds of the Southern Right Whales becoming a marine reserve and also protection of the Great White Shark. This amazing woman's incredible lifelong journey is not over yet as Valerie, now 85, and following Ron's death in 2012, is still involved in conservation issues and still dives to spend time surrounded by and Playing With Sharks.