Netflix’s Shark Whisperer is a fascinating documentary film about the commendable efforts of the young ethologist and conservationist, Ocean Ramsey. While most humans choose to stay far away from sharks, either out of fear or a sense of reverence, Ocean has made it her purpose in life to swim around with all kinds of sharks that she can find circling around in the waters, ranging from tiger sharks to great whites. Shark Whisperer presents an in-depth coverage of the life and work of Ocean Ramsey, along with the controversy that is sometimes stirred because of the comparatively unusual methods she uses to spread her pro-shark conservation message.
Who is Ocean Ramsey?
The opening scene of Shark Whisperer shows Ocean Ramsey swimming around in the open seas among a shiver of tiger sharks when one of the ferocious animals charges towards her. But Ocean remains unmoved and unafraid, facing the shark head-on and managing to push its head away from her body. Although the video clip is extremely shocking, since it is really unthinkable that a human being can stay so calm and unaffected in the face of what seems like a deadly shark attack, it precisely sums up the kind of person Ocean Ramsey is. Born and raised in Oahu, Hawaii, Ocean always found herself very attached to water, almost as if her parents knew what they were doing when they named her. Even as a young girl, she felt most comfortable on the beaches and while surfing and swimming at sea, without the thought of the water being dangerous or the sea housing beastly animals that could harm her.
In the interview with the Netflix crew, Ocean mentions how she was an extremely shy kid in school, which made her feel very lonely and distant from the other children and from people in general. In sharp contrast, she found herself at ease with animals, and when this feeling got combined with her love for adventure in the outdoors, the young girl started going out to the sea regularly, just for fun and to spend as much time with aquatic animals as possible. She remembers encountering the first ever shark in her life when she was just seven or eight, when she was out in the sea and a small shark happened to just swim by in the depths of the water. Ocean recalls contemplating two choices at that exact moment—either to follow the shark and observe it more or to be afraid of it and swim back to the surface to protect herself. While most of us, and especially young children, would choose the second option, Ocean opted for the first one and swam after the shark for a few minutes.
It is this moment that she credits for her extreme love and curiosity towards sharks, as the feeling left her intrigued and excited for life. To her, swimming around in the seas and oceans of the world and observing marine wildlife makes her feel connected to a greater purpose than just looking after herself, and the thrill and the adrenaline rush of these moments never left her. As an adult, Ocean started to give swimming and scuba diving lessons, along with starting to model, but she still remained entirely interested in trying to do something with marine animals, and sharks in particular. One of the key driving forces in this determination was her realization about sharks being an extremely misunderstood animal, feared, and therefore attacked by humans for no good reason.
Ocean Ramsey’s pursuit of her passion did not have to be a lonely journey, though, because of the presence of Juan Oliphant, an underwater photographer she first came across in 2006. Through his extreme interest in surfing, an activity that he was introduced to at a very young age, Juan discovered his love for photography and initially wanted to be a professional surf photographer. However, he soon realized that in order to make money as a surf photographer, he would have to compromise on the sheer fun and thrill of surfing and concentrate more on the photography part. Therefore, he decided to keep enjoying surfing and instead focused on photographing the underwater, which eventually led him to sharks. Despite having grown up at a time when public frenzy against sharks was at its peak, Juan remembers having a totally different feeling when he first encountered a shark in the wild.
Much like Ocean, he had come to the conclusion that sharks are simply misunderstood creatures that are not as bloodthirsty or vengeful as they are made out to be in films or stories, and are actually magnificent animals that need to be conserved. Together with a friend, Juan popularized the practice of going underwater in metal cages simply to observe sharks and study them in Hawaii, and it was almost written in the fates that he would meet Ocean someday. When the two found each other, they discovered how both of them were not just fascinated by sharks but also shared a deep love towards the animals, and they soon decided to start working together. In the process, the two also found love and started a relationship that is still going strong at present.
How did Ocean gain national prominence?
After Ocean and Juan began working together, they decided to take a solid step in ensuring the conservation of sharks and to spread awareness about the need to protect these ancient animals that have been around for millions of years. Although Ocean still agrees that sharks can be very dangerous, being apex predators that dominate the entire marine ecosystem, she wanted to bring a halt to the illogical fear that is created by humans and particularly sparked by films like “Jaws.” Thus, in order to help the creatures, she opted to observe and learn more about them, and she eventually started to figure out some behavioral patterns in sharks. Just like bees in honeycombs buzz around in patterns to communicate with each other, sharks too swim in certain patterns and maintain a social hierarchy in their movements. Ocean started to learn about these patterns by going underwater and observing sharks closely, and she soon began to understand the body language of the animals.
Just like Ocean differed in her ways from ordinary humans when charged at by sharks, she also chose not to go underwater in metal cages, but to simply swim around with sharks freely. Perhaps the risk of the sharks being able to attack her at any time gave her a mental push and an edge that she would have lacked otherwise, and she soon started to succeed in her plan. Ocean managed to seemingly befriend sharks in the Hawaiian waters, or at least find a way to coexist with them for long stretches at a time. She and Juan spent days, months, and years studying each of the sharks found in the North Pacific Ocean around the Hawaiian coast in order to figure out which breeds lived at what specific spots and to study the population of the animals.
While Ocean would study the sharks and swim around with them, Juan kept photographing her, which was always part of the couple’s plan. They had already decided to use their social media to post these images and spread as much awareness about shark conservation as possible. This plan started to work greatly, as they began to be noticed by people all over the world because of the daring feats that Ocean started to achieve during her swims, and the conversation about sharks not really being evil or menacing creatures began in the reply sections. The couple also started to name each of the sharks that they regularly encountered and mentioned the behaviors and habits of each of them in order to give their study a more human touch and make their content more relatable to viewers.
They also started visiting fish markets all over the world, and especially in many parts of Asia, where shark fin is still considered a delicacy with medicinal powers, in order to take videos of the cruel fishing practices and to take a more active role in spreading awareness for conservation of marine wildlife. Their efforts were being noticed, but there was a need to create an even bigger ripple for Ocean, and this is when she decided to shoot what she calls an ‘anti-Jaws’ photograph to show the world that great white sharks are not as bloodthirsty as shown in Steven Spielberg’s iconic film. In order to do so, she and Juan traveled to Guadalupe in Mexico, observed the sharks for a few days, and then Ocean was filmed swimming with a huge great white shark. This video instantly went viral, news programs and talk shows from all over the United States now finally started to talk about Ocean Ramsey and her unbelievable feats, bringing her national prominence.
Why are Ocean and her methods criticized by some?
Although Ocean gained a lot of followers and fans through her social media, and because of her brave steps to spread awareness, she has also had her fair share of criticism. Despite in a comparatively lesser capacity, Shark Whisperer also gives the platform to some of these critics to explain why exactly Ocean Ramsey is not taken very seriously in the world of marine biology. To begin with, Ocean has not had any formal education in marine biology and conservation, because of which there is a certain sense of exclusion in the works against her, put in place by those who have done extensive academic research on the subject. But moreover, it is her actions in some of the videos posted online that have come under flak because of the wrong implications that they can have.
While Ocean’s ability to swim with sharks and stay unharmed is commendable, it is arguably not a great idea to propagate, as youngsters watching her videos might get the idea that sharks are benign and friendly creatures if they are not provoked. While that might be faintly true in some scenarios, the extent of the provocation can become subjective, and sharks usually make the first attack on humans, more often than not, being apex predators. Critics like the marine biologist Prof. Kim Holland and dive instructor Alex Burr point out that there is simply no need to take videos touching sharks and seemingly petting them to upload online, as they can easily plant a horrible idea that can turn fatal for many. To rub the heads of sharks in a friendly manner suggests that the creatures will not attack even if physically interacted with, which is, once again, not true of shark behavior.
Hawaiian cultural practitioner Marques Hanalei Marzan takes a different angle of attack against Ocean Ramsey, as he sees her online content to be against the general customs of Hawaiian culture. It is very central to the culture of the islands to not force oneself upon things, especially elements of nature, and instead wait for them to make first contact. But Marzan sees Ocean’s practice of going out to the sharks in the open water and petting them as forcing her presence on the wild animals. The woman also receives significant hate online from bullies who claim that she only goes around showing her body off in inappropriate clothes, but Ocean directly confronts this idea in the documentary. She openly states that she knows how she will surely grab the attention of the internet by showing off her body and that she wholly intends to use this attention to spread awareness about the conservation of sharks.
Could Ocean finally bring a change to the laws in Hawaii?
Although Ocean and Juan had started getting recognition and fame because of their work, they had no tangible accomplishment to show for it, which is why they decided to take the activism even more seriously and to bring about change in the laws. Because of the rampant shark attacks on humans in the 1980s and ‘90s, a shark task force was established on the islands of Hawaii to hunt and kill sharks, which were considered to be an active threat to human lives. However, the real reason for these attacks was that humans had not yet acknowledged the fact that they had to learn to coexist with the sharks that have existed on Earth since way before us.
Ocean and Juan finally set about to bring a change to the laws of Hawaii that allowed sharks to be freely killed and hunted without repercussions. Although their initial attempts to push for a bill that banned the killing of sharks failed in the first couple of years, a major breakthrough came in 2019, when Ocean once again made a big splash in national news with her actions. The carcass of a whale had floated close to the Hawaiian coast, and Ocean was prepared for the emergence of sharks to gather and eat the flesh. But she did not expect that the largest great white shark ever recorded anywhere, easily more than 20 feet in length, would swim up from the depths of the ocean, and she would get a chance to swim with it.
While her actions of touching the shark and swimming very close to it were once again criticized, they also proved to the world that, even the great white sharks, considered to be the most dangerous and vicious, did not attack humans when they did not feel threatened or when there was no dearth of food. This was enough for the lawmakers in the state to bring about a change formally, and the bill to stop the killing of sharks was turned into a law. It is now illegal to capture, harm, or kill sharks in the state marine waters in Hawaii, and it was the first American state to pass such a law. Despite having her critics who question the ways she used to get to the limelight, Ocean’s ability to bring a change to the laws of Hawaii is acknowledged and appreciated by everyone. Now married, Ocean and Juan still continue to fight for sharks and hope to bring about more changes with regard to the conservation of the animals.
