Ocean Ramsey spends more time with sharks than most people spend with their coworkers. For more than 25 years, she’s been studying, swimming with, and advocating for sharks—creatures she calls “wildlife, not monsters.”
Her high-visibility free dives with great whites have earned her the moniker Shark Whisperer, the title of a new Netflix film from the Academy Award-winning director of My Octopus Teacher, James Reed. Premiering June 30, the provocative documentary makes clear the soft-spoken Hawaiian marine conservationist doesn’t let her critics distract her from her mission: to use her voice and platform for shark conservation, not demonization.
Watch an exclusive clip of Shark Whisperer Ƿ.
Ramsey’s social media following over 2 million across and features up-close encounters with dozens of different shark species (including 20-foot-long great whites), as well as frequent calls for policy changes to help promote shark protections around the world.
“People look first and listen second,” Ramsey tells ԹϺ about using her social media to challenge our perceptions of sharks. Ramsey’s peaceful shark encounters caught on film go against Hollywood’s demonization of sharks and unwind our cultural frenzy that these creatures are to be feared.
Shark Whisperer doesn’t shy away from the controversy these close interactions also stir. Ramsey gets incredibly close to the animals while freediving, sometimes touching them. While Ramsey says these moments challenge negative perceptions of sharks and raise awareness about their importance in marine ecosystems, some in the scientific community say that type of interaction stresses the animals, alters their natural behavior, and sets a poor example for the public. Her supporters agree, include world-renowned marine biologist Sylvia Earle, “our era’s Jacques Cousteau,” who advocates for Ramsey in the film (and in the above video clip).
Outside caught up with Ramsey to talk about the criticism, the dangers of getting too close, and how she hopes Shark Whisperer will shift how we view sharks.
OUTSIDE: How do you hope the encounters you share with the world changes public perception of sharks?
Ocean Ramsey: 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. Because the reality is there are over 100 million sharks being killed every year for wasteful things like shark finning for shark and soup, shark fishing, shark culling. And deep sea sharks being killed for the pharmaceutical and souvenir and cosmetic trade.
I hope to inspire people to get involved in marine conservation because we really need more people speaking up for those without a voice. 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].
Your activism can be polarizing. On one hand, you’ve contributed to passing protective shark regulations. On the other hand, people sometimes get heated when they see your close interactions with sharks. What do you have to say to critics who say your media is more about spectacle than science?
I think it is undeniable by this point that we’ve been able to help pass laws because we’ve been able to bring millions of people to the table. But I understand that there’s always going to be critics. The way that I handle it is staying focused on my mission. Who really deserves my time? The sharks.
I do also try to look for gratitude in moments like that as well. I have noticed in the past that while this isn’t their goal, [the critics have] actually brought more attention to the subjects, and that can be a really good thing to keep sharks in the news.
You spent six years advocating to make shark fishing illegal in Hawaii, which was ultimately adopted in 2021 and went into effect in 2022. Tell me more about the role you and your platform played in passing that ban.
Since we have built this online social media presence, we can reach potentially millions of people a day. By utilizing our social media platforms, when we do a call to action during the legislative process, we have a little bit more educated of an audience, and people who are more willing to speak up, lend their voice, send in a letter, write to a politician.
And then for people that are on the Island, we put out other calls to action; filming ourselves going down to the capitol and saying , “Please come join us. You can do this too.” I know that for some people, it could be nerve-wracking to go and sit in front of a committee and testify again and again and again, as we did year after year after year. And a lot of times for these committee schedules, you get like two days’ notice, and so we had to drop everything and drive across the Island to go into the capitol.
The nice thing was, year after year after year, we fine-tuned our approach, we made more connections and we gained more support. There’s people that come there and they’re not necessarily even caring about sharks— they care about corals and turtles and dolphins. But protecting sharks helps the whole ecosystem. We got those people on board, too.
Let’s talk about warning signs when you’re diving with sharks. How do you know when to call it and get out of the water? What are the signs to you that the shark doesn’t want an interaction right now?
It’s called agonistic, territorial body language. If you’ve got two cats, when they come together maybe they don’t like each other and they need to sort out their social hierarchy. They arch their back. When you have two dogs who might be territorial, maybe they smell each other first, then maybe they flatten their ears back, they lower their tails, they may bear their teeth.
Because of domestication, most people are more attuned to cat behavior, dog behavior, bird behavior. But it’s the same thing in the water with sharks and my team, because I train [the team] them to notice this. There are subtle, small behaviors, and you can see the way that they’re interacting with one another, and that’s precursory behavior towards a physical confrontation.
Now this doesn’t mean that we don’t occasionally get a wild card. A wild card is a shark that randomly swims in, from out of your field of vision. Maybe they’re moving from one aggregate site to another. Maybe it’s a highly migratory species. And they might be a very dominant individual, and they might come right up to you. And so with this [shark] approach, I train people on redirection methods and techniques, which doesn’t harm the shark. It’s just a gentle redirection off the side of them.
But most of the time, 99% of the time, the sharks don’t really care that you’re around, if you’re being quiet, if you’re not wearing bright, flashy, colorful things. If you’re looking around and any of them start to swim towards and you acknowledge them, they’re going to treat you a little bit more like a predator.
Again, not trying to encourage anyone to just jump in. Please go under the guidance of a trained professional who are very sensitive to their body language, to their swim patterns.
What policy efforts are most urgent for protecting sharks right now? What can people do?
The EU shark fin ban is currently under the environmental assessment, so stay tuned for when that’s going to be back open to public comment. At that time, it would be great if people could re-engage in that one, because that’s the entire European Union, and Europe is responsible for with Spain being the top exporter to Hong Kong.
And then if people could also potentially try to reach these companies that are still shipping shark fins. The U.S. removed themselves from the global fin trade, but there’s still a lot of companies out there on the global market, including FedEx, that are still shipping shark fins. And there’s a lot of companies who have banned it, and a lot of airlines who have banned it. It’s just that we haven’t gotten all of them on board yet.
And for the U.S., I would say banning shark fishing should be like the next really big one, because states like New York, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida and Texas, are still running shark fishing tournaments and doing recreational shark fishing.
So if anyone reading this is from those states, if you could talk to your legislators and send them a letter letting them know that this is important to you, and to rally your communities. If you’re from those areas, politicians are more likely to listen to you. But we can all help, collaborate and support each other.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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“Shark Whisperer” premieres on June 30, exclusively on Netflix.