The controversial shark whisperer who wants us to love Jaws – and flirts with danger
When a whale carcass became snagged on a reef off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu in January 2019, 'shark influencer' Ocean Ramsey retrieved her diving gear and headed out to sea. Ramsey, who has two million Instagram followers and dozens of critics in the marine biologist community, was interested not in the whale but in what it would attract: hungry great white sharks keen on a free lunch.
'The great white – the unicorn of the ocean,' gasps Ramsey, a chic 38-year-old who has made a career out of swimming alongside and making physical contact with these monsters of the deep, in Shark Whisperer – a fascinating and sure-to-be controversial new documentary from Netflix.
'Rare to ever see, let alone be in the water and have swim up to you.' But that's what happened to Ramsey in 2019, when she went diving with her full-time filmographer (and husband) Juan Oliphant. Out in the eerie azure waters of the Pacific, Ramsey – who is anxious for it to be known that, yes, Ocean is her real name – was stunned to see a massive female great white ascend, apparition-like, from the depths.
Placing her hand on its vast dorsal fin, she allowed herself to be gently pulled along. Even with her features concealed by her scuba gear, it is evident that she was having a spiritual moment. The shark – widely believed to be a 50-year-old female named Deep Blue, one of the largest great whites ever identified – appeared largely unmoved. 'Beyond magic!' Ramsey wrote on Instagram. 'Please #helpsavesharks!!!!'
Ramsey grew up in Oahu, the most populous of Hawaii's islands and has swum with sharks since she was 14. Her life's mission, she explains, is to challenge the portrayal of sharks as nature's villains.
'We gotta change the music, change the way we look at sharks. Flip the perception,' she says in Shark Whisperer, co-directed by James Reed, winner of a Best Documentary Oscar for My Octopus Teacher (about a bond between a diver and an octopus). By posting her interactions with sharks on social media she hopes to help rehabilitate these misunderstood predators. 'That human component is the difference: 'Oh my gosh, maybe they're not like Jaws '.'
Her swim with Deep Blue rippled across social media. It also amplified the backlash against Ramsey, as critics in the academic community argued that, far from raising awareness about sharks, she is using them to enhance her celebrity – the way other influencers would cash in on their children or pets. 'This is not shark advocacy it is selfish self-promotion,' according to Michael Domeier, President of the Hawaii-based Marine Conservation Science Institute.
Shark Whisperer is a visually stunning portrait of Ramsey in her natural environment – swimming amongst sharks and, so she believes, bonding with them. However, it also raises questions about the line between advocacy and self-promotion, between campaigner and grifter. Even the title invites comment: is Ramsey a Shark Whisperer or Shark Exploiter?
'I am broadly involved in shark research and conservation and public education efforts with colleagues all over the world, and I am not aware of a single credentialed expert who thinks that what Ocean Ramsey does could possibly do anything to help anything,' Dr David Shiffman, a marine conservation scientist in Washington, DC, tells the Telegraph by email.
'Many believe she's going to get someone hurt when they try to emulate her harmful wildlife harassment, and no one thinks this could possibly help. At best, she's a mostly harmless extremist who sometimes gets in the way. She claims: 'But I'm showing that sharks aren't dangerous, and therefore I'm helping to save sharks,' but that assumes, incorrectly, that people think[ing] sharks are dangerous is why these animals are threatened.'
Such claims are not supported by the science. Threats to the shark population include habitat destruction, overfishing and the demand for shark fin soup in Asia – none of which have anything to do with Jaws and the bad press it did or didn't create.
'We have mountains of data and evidence and reality showing that this is not the case,' says Dr Shiffman. 'No one has ever solved a problem after first misunderstanding what the problem is. I've also never really understood 'look, watch me annoy this wild animal and it doesn't try to kill me, therefore we should conserve it' as an argument'.
There is also the fear that this influencer could prove too influential and that Ramsey's videos might encourage other divers, less experienced with sharks, to emulate her up-close-and-personal swimming, putting themselves in harm's way.
'One of the first things you learn in open-water scuba-diver training is 'look but don't touch'. We can disrupt, stress or even hurt marine wildlife, and large marine wildlife might get annoyed with us,' says Dr Shiffman. 'All it takes is one time of misunderstanding what an animal is doing and you have a really big problem.'
He isn't alone in feeling Ramsey's true talent is for self-publicity; contacted for comment, Michael Domeier, of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, refers the Telegraph to a 2019 interview he gave to The Washington Post about Ramsey.
'Promoting through social media that it's safe and okay to swim with these animals is irresponsible,' Domeier said at the time. He continued: 'More than 99 per cent of sharks are not dangerous. But that happens to be one that is very dangerous. If you want to talk about sharks being not dangerous, get your picture taken with a different species, not that one.'
Shark Whisperer acknowledges these critiques – though Ramsey wonders if a male diver would be subject to the same attacks. 'As a female I'll get a different level of attention and a high level of criticism,' she shrugs. 'Keyboard warriors millions of miles away… I challenge them to do better.'
Not much is known about Ramsey's childhood, though in Shark Whisperer, she recalls being 'kind of a shy kid. More drawn to just interacting with animals out in nature'.
Her website reveals that she started swimming with sharks in her early teens and that she studied biology at the University of Hawaii, earned a bachelor's degree in marine biology at San Diego State University, and that she has a master's degree in ethology (the study of human behaviour and social organisation from a biological perspective). Ramsey lists her role models as Sylvia Alice Earle, an American marine biologist and oceanographer, and Bella, 'a female great white shark'.
She and Oliphant runs a successful shark-diving business in Oahu, which organises $150-per-head 'snorkel diving with shark expeditions'. Ramsey also offers online courses in 'Shark Behaviour and Safety for All' and 'Training for Professionals' (both for $150 (£109).
A point she makes in the film is that humans and sharks will inevitably come into contact, and it is better to be prepared. 'Keeping humans and sharks apart isn't a reality. There's going to be a lot of people that want to swim, surf and dive. They're going to encounter sharks. I want people to be safe. When an accident happens, that doesn't help my cause, that doesn't help sharks conservation, that doesn't help the reputation of the shark.'
Yet, critics take issue with Ramsey's description of herself as a conservationist and researcher. 'Ramsey sometimes calls herself a scientist,' says Dr Shiffman. 'I am not the 'who counts as a real scientist' police, but she does not collect data, analyse data, publish data, present at conferences or collaborate with other researchers.'
The feel-good final 30 minutes of Shark Whisperer follow Ramsey as she successfully campaigns for shark protection legislation in Hawaii. But experts argue that the narrative does not necessarily paint an accurate picture.
'Ramsey's supporters point to her 'success' banning commercial shark fishing in Hawaiian waters as evidence that she's great at conservation,' says Dr Shiffman.
'This rule applies only to state waters, up to three miles out from shore, not to adjacent Federal waters, from three to 200 miles out from shore, where more than 99.9 per cent of shark fishing in the region actually happens. Ramsey knows she didn't actually help with anything, but she doesn't want you to know that because it undermines her legend.'
As deep-sea eye candy, Shark Whisperer is undeniably and mesmerisingly beautiful – shots of Ramsey swimming amongst the sharks have an almost ghostly quality. But there are moments when Ramsey surely risks anthropomorphising the creatures, such as when she says that her husband and a tiger shark named Roxy have a 'connection' because both have learnt to live with serious injuries.
'They constantly struggle with pain,' she says. 'It's beautiful to see them interact'. There are echoes of Timothy Treadwell, the subject of the documentary Grizzly Man by director Werner Herzog, who saw bears as big, cuddly toys – until one turned rogue and killed him.
Could the same fate befall Ramsey? It is to her credit that she has considered the possibility, as she explains at the end of Shark Whisperer.
'You never know when you're going to go. If it happens from a shark, I'm always big on going on the record of I'm putting myself these more extreme situations,' she says. 'So definitely don't blame the shark.'
Shark Whisperer is on Netflix from June 30
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