Ocean Ramsey is the star of a new Netflix documentary called Shark Whisperer. Photo: Netflix//Screenshot
Netflix has dipped its toes in shark-infested waters with a new documentary called Shark Whisperer. Featuring Ocean Ramsey, who has gained a massive following for free-diving with sharks, the show was directed by Oscar-winning director James Reed, who also made My Octopus Teacher.
“(Ramsey’s) passion for sharks, who she feels are gravely misunderstood and unfairly maligned, became her life’s work,” Netflix writes. “Over 100 million sharks are killed each year, imperiling the survival of a species that is integral to a balanced marine ecosystem, and critical to a healthy Earth.”
Sharks — great whites in particular — are generally feared by the vast majority humans. It makes sense on its face. They are nature’s perfect hunters, evolved over millions of years to survive by any means possible. They’re one of the great apex predators, and they can inflict horrible injuries, even if they’re not trying to kill you. But that fear is misplaced, if you’re looking at hard facts, and Ocean has dedicated her life trying to change that. I got to experience it first hand.
A few years ago, I spent a day on a boat off Haleiwa, a perfect little town on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, with Ocean and Juan Oliphant, her partner and videographer. You can read about it here, if you’re interested. It was one of the most memorable days of my life, and it changed the way I perceive sharks. As we bobbed around in the deep blue, a dozen sand sharks came up to greet us. Although they’re not considered dangerous, they can do some damage if they’re provoked. They were clearly curious about us, and Ramsey’s comfort in the water with them was infectious. She was almost eerily calm, and when a tiger shark showed up, she simply herded us back to the boat and smiled at us as if we weren’t just swimming with a tiger shark.
A few years later, The Inertia created an online course with her called “Ocean Ramsey’s Guide to Sharks.” In it, Ramsey explains critical information to minimize the potential for adverse shark encounters and maximize appreciation of the predators.
Ocean isn’t just throwing caution to the wind when she swims with sharks. She knows what she’s doing and she knows what sharks can do. She’s got the educational chops to back it up, too. She has an associate degree in behavioral sciences, an undergraduate degree in marine biology, and a master’s in ethology, which is the study of animal behavior.
“I’m not a crazy person,” Ramsay said in a trailer for Shark Whisperer. “I’m hyper aware of what they’re capable of.”
Her approach, however, hasn’t been without criticism. Some believe that she’s putting herself and others at risk for the sake of attention. They fear that others will attempt to do what she does. The flip side of attention, of course, is that her goal is to make people aware of how important sharks are, so more attention is a good thing.
“I’m really hoping that it’ll shift the Hollywood fictitious portrayal of sharks as mindless monsters into the reality that we can coexist. We need to learn to adapt to their behavior,” she told Outside magazine. “Because the reality is there are over 100 million sharks being killed every year for wasteful things like shark finning and soup, shark fishing, shark culling. And deep sea sharks being killed for the pharmaceutical and souvenir and cosmetic trade.”
According to Ramsey, she doesn’t want people to do what she’s doing, exactly. Instead, she simply wants people to stand up for sharks.
“I hope to inspire people to get involved in marine conservation because we really need more people speaking up for those without a voice,” she continued. “A lot of people don’t go diving; they don’t get to see the amazing underwater world. Maybe they don’t feel a connection. I hope that with this film we can show the reality and the beauty and the importance [of sharks].”
