Friends, family don blue garb to honour Toronto filmmaker Rob Stewart at funeral

The funeral for Toronto filmmaker Rob Stewart, who died while scuba diving off the Florida Keys last month, was held Saturday.

Hundreds of people, many wearing blue in honour of Stewart, gathered at the Bloor Street United Church at 1 p.m. to mourn the 37-year-old, whose body was found Feb. 3.

The filmmaker had gone missing three days prior after resurfacing from a dive with two other companions.

READ MORE: Toronto ‘Sharkwater’ filmmaker Rob Stewart’s body found by U.S. search crews

Childhood friend Tyler MacLeod described Stewart as “colourful” and “fun,” while family friend Martin White told Global News “you couldn’t have met him and not be impacted by him.”

“You don’t come across those kinds of people that often.”

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“We haven’t lost him because he’s going to live on through us, just don’t let him die,” added MacLeod. “Don’t wake up tomorrow and be the same person you were yesterday. Let this change us.”

READ MORE: Friends remember Toronto filmmaker Rob Stewart who died on dive

Stewart was in Florida shooting a sequel for Sharkwater, a film that explores the hunting of sharks and the destruction of ocean ecosystems.

The documentary debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and became an international hit. It prompted people around the world to lobby their governments for bans on shark finning.

Stewart devoted his career to warning the world about threats facing sharks, and other ocean life, as well as humanity in general.

“I’m a tremendous admirer of a guy like Rob Stewart,” Lawrence Arkilander, a fan of the filmmaker, told Global News before the service. “No one on this planet has probably done more for shark conservation than Rob, and to raise awareness of the shark finning issue.”

“He’s just a super superhero in my eyes and I have so much respect for the work he’s done in his life.”

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He was also known for his documentary Revolution, and his memoir Save the Humans.

With files from Nicole Thompson of the Canadian Press and Nick Westoll