July 7, 2025 • 25 mins
Ocean Ramsay's new documentary, called Shark Whisperer, is out on Netflix, and this is my review. This episode investigates Ocean Ramsey’s viral shark interactions, including her approach of touching and redirecting sharks in open water. We explore how these encounters influence shark behavior and why marine scientists warn about potential stress, habituation, and public safety concerns when sharks associate humans with food or physical contact.
Shark Conservation: We break down Ramsey’s role in raising awareness for shark conservation and her contributions to Hawaii’s 2021 shark fishing ban. While supporters credit her high-profile advocacy with inspiring public action, critics question whether her methods overshadow the Kanaka-led cultural and scientific leadership behind the legislation.
Shark Touching: We examine the controversy surrounding Ramsey’s touching of sharks, allegations of chumming or handfeeding, and inconsistencies around her educational credentials. We also highlight how her large online following can inspire positive ocean awareness but sometimes leads to online attacks against scientists working on shark conservation through rigorous research.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:00:00):
The Shark Whisperer is out.
I watched it on Netflix.
It's documentary about
Ocean Ramsay and her work
about interacting with sharks.
Very controversial in the science
and ocean conservation world.
Although she captures the
attention of many people.
Of course, why wouldn't you
when you ride a great
white shark in the water?
This is gonna be an
interesting review of this.
(01:00:20):
I already recorded an
episode, it was 40 minutes long.
I'm gonna try and make this less.
So let's start the show.
(upbeat music)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another
exciting episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
I'm your host Andrew Lewin.
And this is the podcast where you find
out what's happening with the ocean.
How you could speak up for the ocean.
What you can do to live for a better
ocean by taking action.
(01:00:40):
If action is what you want to take before
we get into the Shark Whisperer and Ocean
Ramsay and all that.
If you want to take real action, you want
to know how to protect the ocean.
Join the undertow to join this online
community that I'm creating
with two other co-founders.
These amazing women who are
out there trying to do best.
We are trying to help guide you to choose
(01:01:01):
better ways to protect the ocean.
If you don't know, you can learn about
the ocean in this community.
You can learn about how to protect the
ocean better in this community.
Just go to speakupforblue.com forward
slash join the undertow.
That's speakupforblue.com forward slash
join the undertow to join the undertow
and do better at conservation.
So that's what I want you to do right
(01:01:22):
before we start this.
Now let's get into it.
Okay, I recorded this episode before and
it was 40 minutes long.
Did not want to do that to you.
I know attention spans are short.
We have lots to do.
I want you to take this
episode for what it's worth.
It is a documentary about a woman who
interacts with sharks in a bad way.
I'm going to tell you that's a bad way.
She doesn't mean to do in a
(01:01:43):
bad way, but it's a bad way.
She harasses sharks.
It's what she does
and it's shown on video.
I don't mean to degrade her in any way.
I don't mean to be mean to her in any
way, but it's what she does.
And so this has been a topic of a lot of
controversy within the ocean science and
an ocean conservation world.
A lot of people have spoken
out about the work that she does.
(01:02:05):
But the thing is that it
captures a lot of attention.
They take amazing photos of her
interacting with these sharks touching
the sharks pushing them away interacting
with these sharks and she
puts out some misinformation.
So we're going to get into the
documentary what it's about and what are
the problems I have with it really in
terms of it and then some of the things
that I think we need to learn as ocean
conservationists and scientists to say,
(01:02:27):
hey, we need to start capturing the
attention of people and we
need to figure out ways to do it.
That is in a good way and also some
advice for Netflix and
who to actually cover.
So we're going to talk
about that all today.
So let's get into it.
The movie is about Ocean Ramsey.
Ocean Ramsey claims to be a scientist
claims to be a researcher
claims to be a shark whisperer.
Although she says she's not a shark
whisperer in the movie, but the movie
(01:02:47):
says, you know, title is shark whisperer.
But essentially what she's done is she's
created this company where she goes out
and she teaches people
how to interact with sharks.
She wants to show that sharks are gentle.
She wants to show that sharks are not
monsters as some movies like Jaws may
have represented in the past and some
people have represented
people are afraid of sharks.
That is not a doubt.
Everybody there are a lot of people who
(01:03:09):
are afraid of sharks.
People know that
everybody knows that it's fine.
There's nothing wrong with that.
They are predators.
They have big teeth.
They have bitten people before.
It doesn't happen as often
as we think, but it happens.
And when you go in the water, all you
think of is Jaws or all you think of are
these different types of movies about
sharks eating people or hurting people
and it happens in real life at times.
And unfortunately, you know, they get a
(01:03:30):
bad rap because of it.
So people are afraid of sharks.
That fear of sharks has led to the
killing of sharks, whether it's for
fishing or for
tournaments or for anything else.
And sometimes, you know,
people get mad at that.
And sometimes people are like, well, we
need to change the reputation of sharks.
Those people go out and
do it in different ways.
Some people will swim with sharks, not
touch them and do what, you know, Patty
(01:03:51):
says and what all the scuba diving
outfits say and say when you're in the
water, you just look, you don't touch.
That's pretty much what the mantra is
when you're in the water, what you should
be doing, whether you're a scientist or
not, unless you're actually
doing work up on the animal.
You do not touch if you don't need to.
Ocean Ramsey touches.
She has this connection, she says in this
movie, and that's what allows her to
(01:04:12):
interact with these animals.
Now, here's the thing. She anthropomorphizes these animals.
Basically, what she's doing, what that
means is she's attributing human
characteristics to animals where those
human characteristics
are probably not true.
She says she has this
connection with the animals.
She knows the animals and they all have
different characteristics, like they all
have their character.
(01:04:32):
They all act in different ways.
Each individual shark, whether it's a
tiger shark, whether it's an ocean white
tip, each individual shark of that
population of that area will display
different types of characteristics.
That's not in doubt here.
It's whether they're being friendly or
whether they're coming to say hello or
whether they're doing things.
These are animals. These are predators.
They're coming to check you out.
If a shark approaches you, it's checking
you out to say, one, are you food? And
(01:04:54):
two, are you dangerous to me?
If you're dangerous to me, I'm going to
get out. If you're food, I'm going to
come check you out even more.
And so you see a lot of times in the
film, you see, you know, a tiger shark
coming up to Ocean Ramsey.
She puts her hand out. She says, I'm only
waiting until they come to me.
Although there's other shots in the video
where she's actually touching their fins
and things like that.
And there's a shot where a great white
(01:05:15):
came by what everybody
thought was deep blue.
Apparently it's not deep blue. The name
of the shark was a 20 foot
great white shark. It's huge.
And that's what made her popular. She
rode this thing. She held onto its fin
and rode it basically swimming within.
Let it kind of drag her around in a very
peaceful way. And it went viral.
And she claims a lot of things from that.
But, you know, that's what happens. She
rides them. She holds onto their fins.
(01:05:35):
She essentially harasses them. You should
never touch a shark. You never know what
you're going to do that shark.
You never know what's on your hands. You
never know what's on the
sharks, you know, skin.
There's a lot of dangers that can happen.
And plus you don't want to piss off a
shark. Now, she has gone diving with
sharks for a long time.
She probably has thousands and thousands
of hours with sharks in this atmosphere.
But the problem is, is that you never
(01:05:58):
know when a shark is going to turn on
you. For example, there is a shark that's
in the film where she says she has to watch her at all times.
Because this shark will come up. And
normally when she pushes them away, a
tiger shark will actually take a long
route and come back around and then come
visit her again by checking her out to
see if she's actually food.
But this one will come back and turn back
around quick and she has to be careful of
that. This is the thing where I'm saying
(01:06:19):
it's not games these sharks are playing.
These sharks are out there to survive.
They're out there either to protect
themselves or to eat.
That's what they do.
That's the animal kingdom. That's what
happens. Mother Nature is cruel. These
animals have to be just as cruel and
that's how it works. Right. So this is
what we're dealing with from a
perspective. However, the movie makes it
(01:06:39):
sound like she's just
this shark whisperer.
She has this ability to connect with
sharks and the sharks connect with her
and it feels just so spiritual and it
feels just great. It's all BS, but it's
easy to fall for it. It is.
And when I watched it, I was like, oh
wow, like she really does a good job with
all of these sharks and things like that.
You fall for it. It's really easy to fall
for because it's a beautiful depiction of
(01:06:59):
how animals and humans can interact. And
I do believe that she has, you know, a
want to protect these sharks. She sees
these sharks every day when you start to
grow a or not every day, but most of the
days when every time she's out there, she
sees the same sharks come back. You know,
there was one shark that had a crack jaw
or broken jaw and it's sad.
Then it had a fish hook in it and there's
(01:07:19):
a lot of things that were going on. The
problem is, is she's still harassing
sharks. She teaches other people that you
can harass sharks and get away with it
and you can't. You just don't want to do
that because yes, she has thousands and
thousands of hours in
the water with sharks.
But other people who don't are going to
try this. Not everybody because a lot of
us are like, I'm not getting in the water
with sharks without a cage or even just
getting the water with sharks anyway. But
(01:07:40):
there are people who will and there are
people who will try this tactic, whether
it's a great white, whether it's a tiger
shark, whether it's a
Mako shark, any shark.
They will do that and they will get hurt
because of it. And that is dangerous
because what does that do? Not only to
the person hurt the person, but it could
also hurt the reputation of sharks. And
that is what we don't want. We've taken a
lot of time. There's a lot of people who
have taken a lot of time to make sure
(01:08:02):
that these sharks have better reputation,
that they're known as being these
formidable animals and predators, apex
predators, but they need to be protected
and that they're not always after humans.
There have been plenty
of studies to show that.
Dr. Chris Lowe out of the University of
California, Long Beach lab, the shark
lab, and it shows it every day. So that's
something that's really important to look
at. Look at the science. Don't just look
(01:08:23):
at people who are just touching sharks
and getting away with it because I'll
tell you at some point she's going to get
hurt. She even says that it could happen
and that she's okay with it. I'm not okay
with somebody getting hurt. People
watching it or filming it. And also, you
know, that reputation of sharks going
downhill. Let's be honest. The crocodile
hunter had the same kind of thing. Got
killed by a stingray.
An accident and you know he doesn't want
(01:08:44):
anything happened to stingrays, but
people are afraid of stingrays because it
hit the crocodile hunter that it could
hit anybody if people are afraid, but not
going to want to protect and we need all
hands on deck to protect. That's what we
need. Okay, enough on that. I got a lot
of other stuff to go through. So I'm
going to go through that and I'm already
at like 13 minutes. So I've got like a
couple minutes to try and keep everything
down to a good thing. So hopefully my
(01:09:07):
editor will be able to edit this down so
that you can go and get a good timing and get back on to your own.
Okay, let's talk about the conservation
efforts. The one story that really
captured my attention was the
conservation effort that she talks about
a banning sharks in Hawaii, the banning
of shark fishing in Hawaii. Now she talks
a lot about conservation efforts about,
you know, finning. She talks about
(01:09:27):
banning finning and how, you know, 100
million sharks die every day. We know the
deaths of sharks from finning is going
down since it was first reported. But
there are other ways that sharks die. A
lot is overfishing and unsustainable.
Fishing practices and not, you know,
watching them out in the high seas and so
forth. There's a lot of stuff that is
killing sharks and still a lot of sharks
die each and every day shark fishing can
(01:09:49):
be a problem. There are ways that, you
know, sustainable shark fishing can
happen. But what she refers to one thing
before we get into the story of how she
protected or how she helped get shark
fishing banned in Hawaii was the fact
that she talked about fitting and she
talked about finning.
She has B roll of her walking around what
seemed to be in an Asian fishing market
She sees sharks these dead sharks and
(01:10:11):
fins being cut off of these dead sharks
Now that is technically not finning that
is taking the fins off of a dead shark
That is actually very legal in a lot of
places not illegal
legal in a lot of places
If you land the shark, that means you
bring it back dead you fish the shark
You're gonna sell it for its meat. You
can also sell the fins because you want
to use up the entire body
That's a sustainable practice and use of
(01:10:32):
a shark is if you're gonna fish it and if
you don't agree with it
That's fine. But if you're gonna fish it
you should eat all of it
So taking the fins make sense in that
perspective the act of
finning is to go out into the ocean
Right middle the ocean or wherever you
are on the coast wherever and actually
catch a shark keep it alive
Cut the fins off the shark while it's
alive and then throw the shark back while
(01:10:54):
it's still alive without its fins
For it to essentially just die a very
very painful death. That is cruel
That is awful. And I know
some of you will argue that
Hey, you know what killing a shark just
for fishing and different meat is cruel
in itself. I understand that that is
legal in a lot of places
What's illegal is the act of finning
which I just described?
There's meaning in the different words
(01:11:15):
and she misrepresents
what finning is in this film
She's done that before and that matters
to a lot of ocean conservationists to a
lot of scientists and
it should matter to you
Because that's actually legal
That's actually using the shark when you
land it and cut the fins
off to use it for shark fins
That's actually a sustainable way because
you want to use all of the animal, right?
That's a very good way of making sure
(01:11:36):
that we're sustainable
if we are going to fish
For a particular species a shark a
different type of fish, whatever that is
You want to use all of it so that makes
it worthwhile, right?
That's a very big act when you eat
animals is to use all of its parts
So that's one of the things that you
know, and you may not
agree and that's fine
But that's one of the things that I had a
particularly caught my eye and be like
(01:11:56):
well, hold on a second
That's not actually finning now with her
banning of shark fishing within Hawaii
Admirable act she'd
played a role in it. She
partnered up with some other organization
There was an organization and a people
called Hanaka and it was led by this
whole movement was led by Hanaka
And I've got a video to document someone
(01:12:16):
telling you that it was Mackenzie who's
on tick-tock who's been
on this podcast before
She's great. She's a scientist
She's a very great ocean conservationist
and she's a great science communicator
And she is from the island of Hawaii in
Oahu and she knows a lot about that
And she talks a little bit
more than I know about her
So I'll let her talk about that aspect,
but this was a Hanaka led
(01:12:37):
I guess conservation movement and it
worked now she coupled into it
She came into the team as a team and she
used her following to get public support
She also goes around to schools and other
places and communities and teaches about
sharks and what her work does
So that's great. That's admirable. And
she was part of that team
This film this documentary makes it look
(01:12:58):
like she led the whole thing in the film
She said that she didn't get it the
building get passed in
2016 nor in 2017 nor in 2018
It wasn't until 2019 after the video came
out of her swimming
with the great white shark
That's what she says. She attributes the
fact that hey, you know what?
That's what kind of put it over the hump
and got it passed because there wasn't
much opposition of
that because if you swim
(01:13:19):
With a great white and you're not getting
eaten then sharks can't be that bad. We
shouldn't be fishing for sharks
That's what she claims
in the film essentially
But the thing is is when you try and get
policy passed it doesn't
always happen at the beginning
Right doesn't always happen the first
year the second year the third year
Sometimes doesn't happen for 10 years the
Ross Sea Marine
protected area in Antarctica
Took over 10 years to get accepted by 24
(01:13:41):
nations that manage Antarctica
It finally got accepted because you know
the science gets better the
public support gets better
And there's a lot of pressure on all
those countries from their
own people and internationally
(01:14:16):
To have these marine protected areas designated now There are of course other and repre And that's what makes it so
frustrating with conservation
It just takes so much time and a lot of
these animals are dying in the meantime
But I'm sure her followers and her public
support in the gathering of public
support and her persona
herself helped get this passed
But the fact is the movie whether she
means it or not is taking credit for it
Puts a bad taste in everybody's mouth
because ocean
(01:14:36):
conservation is about collaboration
It's about working together as a team
There are people that I know who have
done amazing things in ocean conservation
helped get marine protected areas
designated helped get certain CITES
regulations designated
Do they take credit for it or do they let
other people say hey
this person did this?
(01:14:58):
No, they will be the first to say no
actually I worked with this organization
and this organization did
this part in this process
And everybody gives credit to everybody
doesn't happen all the time
But when it happens that's when you know
the true collaboration is in effect
That's when you know that this person is
admirable this person
Deserves to be in this area because they
just want to get the stuff passed and
(01:15:19):
protected and not take
credit for it even though
Credits do to them right, but now they
don't want to take all the credit
They want to say hey, you know what other
people, you know help get this passed
So that is a big problem and I know maybe
that you're listening to this and you're
a supporter of ocean rams
And you see well, you know what she's
helped anyway, so isn't that great?
It is great
But to take credit for it in this film or
(01:15:39):
what seems to be taking
credit for this she led this
Really puts a sour taste in a lot of
people's mouths that have worked so hard
to put it through now with that said I
Haven't come across anybody speaking out
against it in that thing
That doesn't mean that anybody hasn't but
I haven't seen any reports or any
articles where people are speaking out
against it and that's fine
(01:16:01):
Maybe they did maybe they didn't what I
see is one person taking
credit that leading this
I know differently and that puts a sour
taste in my mouth with this
I wouldn't work with somebody like that
because of it, right?
Whether she has two million followers or
two followers that puts
a sour taste in my mouth
So I think that's thing is it's
transparency. It's
like hey, you know what?
We got this pass was great, but it was a
team effort that
(01:16:21):
didn't show off in the movie
It looked like she led that speaking of
transparency ocean ramsi's education now
Look, you don't have to be a scientist to
do this type of work, you know
You don't have to be a scientist you can
be an advocate you can be an activist
You can be someone who works in policy
and gets into these types of situation
gets public support and do really great
(01:16:43):
work for ocean conservation
But ocean ramsi has
claimed that she is a scientist
However, there's something very different
about her claims compared to what she's
proven or what she's shown
of where she's gone to school
And how she got her credentials
She may have schooling and she may have
credentials and she may choose not to
post it on a website
But she is the first scientist that I
(01:17:03):
have ever met who has not posted their
credentials or talked
about their credentials
And that is a little weird to me. I'll be
honest and it's not against
it if she has it that's fine
But it's causing a lot of controversy
within the scientific community ocean
conservation committees
Like she says she's a scientist
She says she practices science and you
can collect data for a lot of different
researchers and stuff
that happens all the time
(01:17:23):
And you're not a scientist, but she
claims she's a scientist, but she doesn't
talk about being a scientist
She doesn't they not proudly display it
on her website or anything like that
And I feel like that's
a little odd, you know
You want to be transparent you say you
should be proud if she did the work
It's hard work and she should be proud of
what she's done, but
don't claim it and not show it
I think that's a little weird. It's not
like the end all be all but it's a little
(01:17:44):
odd that she's not claiming it
There are people who said that she's gone
to San Diego State University. She's got
a marine biology degree
She got a degree in a master's in animal
behavior. I haven't
seen it on her website
I haven't seen her cut that and actually
say it she's very
mysterious in that kind of way
She doesn't talk about
herself a lot within that respect
She only talks about herself within like
saving sharks as well as
interacting with these sharks
(01:18:05):
So that's a little odd to me. Like I
said, I'm very proud of that. I have an
undergraduate degree
I have a master's
degree. I work very hard for it
It was not easy talk to anybody who's
done a graduate degree. It is sucks. It's
hard. It is very difficult
So if you have it flaunt it and you don't
have to like I said, it's not the end all
be all but it's a little odd to
Me that she's not proudly displaying it
(01:18:26):
or proudly talking about it as she should
be because it is a very
difficult thing to get
It's not easy to get
so that's a big thing
I want to talk about going back to the
interaction when you have cage free dives
and you have cage dives a lot of times
You know, you have to attract the sharks
people attract the sharks using chumming
or sometimes they use hand feeding
Which is kind of crazy when you think
(01:18:46):
about feeding sharks
But a lot of people do it and that's how
they attract the sharks chumming and hand
feeding Ocean Ramsey
says she doesn't do it
And there's no physical evidence that
says she does it at
this point that I could see
However, there have been people and I'll
link to the video below who have said
that she does chum water
that they know people who say
That she chums with the water to attract
(01:19:07):
those sharks. She says she doesn't
There have been apparently videos shows
that there's chum in the water that have
been taken down from social media posts
Nobody that has worked for her is allowed
to talk about it
because they've all signed
NDAs and they refuse to talk about it
because they can't
because they legally can't
Again, the mystery around it whether it's
true or not. I don't
know the mystery around it
(01:19:28):
She says she doesn't do it
But there's you know, some people say she
does and there's been some photos that
have been shown online of some, you know
Sometimes she's been hand feeding and
she's taking those down whether that's
just a once in a
lifetime thing or I don't know
Sometimes you can learn from that, but
she says she's never done it
She doesn't do it. And so that's a little
weird to me again. It comes down to the
transparency of the thing
(01:19:49):
So I think that's difficult now. Let's
talk about the fact
that she's an influencer
She's a big influencer
within the ocean space
She has over 2 million followers on
Instagram and other places and a lot of
people love what she does people have
watched this movie and they
Love what she does. They think she is
amazing. That's great. They don't know
it's very difficult to know
She doesn't talk about a lot of the
controversies. She lets it ride
(01:20:10):
She talks about the
controversies in the film
But it doesn't make it
look like that big of a deal
There looks like there's some researchers
who are on the film who don't agree with
what she does and they talk about that
So it kind of like when I watch I was
like, oh, she's actually,
you know facing it head-on
She's talking about it. She just ignores
it and she just does what she does
But there's still like
something weird about it
It just didn't sit right with me
But she does have a lot of followers and
(01:20:31):
those followers have gone after other
researchers and ocean
scientists and ocean conservation
Who have spoken out and criticized her
for what she does that
is obviously not good now
I don't know if she
says to go out and do it
But the fact is I feel as an influencer
you have that responsibility to kind of
go online is like hey
people if people criticize me
That's fine as part of the job
Please don't go after and you know
(01:20:52):
threaten their lives or this and that and
blah blah blah which has happened
And so, you know when you have a
following like that and people love you
They defend you but it can get aggressive
it can get scary and
that's not good with that
Said having a following is a really great
thing for conservation, right?
You saw it as an example in the film
She talks about you know, basically
inspire her followers to support this
(01:21:14):
movement to ban shark
fishing within Hawaii
Is it huge was gonna save sharks around
the world? No, but it's gonna
save sharks in Hawaii for sure
But you know, it's great to have that
it's great to have that
Unfortunately, it's with probably the
wrong person that can do it for
conservation because she
often provides misinformation
Like I said with the finning she
interacts with sharks, which is not good
(01:21:36):
She teaches people that you can't
interact with sharks
You should interact with sharks and that
can be very dangerous for the sharks as
well as for the people, you know
There's a lot of
controversy here. So why is it?
I always wonder, you know, like why is it
that a lot of people who have followings?
Tend to do some like controversial things
and maybe that's why they have
followings. Maybe
that's why Netflix is like
Hey, let's do a documentary on this
person because it's gonna drum up some
(01:21:58):
controversy just like sea-spiracy did
It's gonna drum up some support because
they have a big following and we'll get a
lot of views and that's
really what it comes out
So they want to make money. They want
people to come to Netflix
and they want to watch it
I would just like to see
other people get the spotlight
People who have done great work people
who are great people
People who want to work with others and
collaborate and do conservation the right
(01:22:20):
way and should get the
spotlight in front of an audience
That has a Netflix type of audience, you
know what I would like to see
I like to see dr
Asha Davos who's a marine mammologist out
of Sri Lanka who discovered the only
population that I think
we know that to this day
I don't know if that's true
But the only blue whale population that
doesn't migrate north or south and stays
(01:22:40):
within the Sri Lankan waters and worked
with the government as a woman
in Sri Lanka worked with
the government of Sri Lanka to
Reroute one of the largest ports in the
Indian Ocean so that they didn't harm
blue whales and other whales in the area
Like think about what that does a woman
in Sri Lanka one woman Sri Lanka
used her ability to do science and
(01:23:02):
conservation and her speaking ability and
her ability to inspire people to get a
government who probably doesn't really
treat women the best
to change and reroute the shipping lanes
of a port of one of the largest ports if
not the largest port in
in the Indian Ocean and
She speaks all over the world to inspire
people all over the world put a show on
her do an entire documentary on her
(01:23:23):
She's amazing. She's a good friend of
mine. So I'm biased. She's amazing. Well,
how would you just do that?
Dr. Asher Davos look her up watch what
she does. She does live streaming a lot
of times with her marine mammal G
Surveys and so forth. She talks about
whale poop, which is
fluorescent orange. It's amazing
You got to do a documentary on Netflix
about her or a good friend of mine Angelo
Villa Gomez do a documentary on him
(01:23:44):
That guy is an amazing guy. He's like a
brother to me. He is so much fun to talk
to he is so interesting
He's got an interesting history, right?
He stands up for people
He does conservation work and he gives
people credit for what they do and takes
away credit from him
Even though he deserves most of the
credit or a lot of the
credit, but he won't do it himself
He's very humble that way do these
(01:24:04):
documentaries. That's what I want to see
I want to see people who have done great
work in the ocean
conservation have a great story
It's time that we start elevating people
who can really command
and inspire an audience
But they need to get in
front of that audience
These are the people that these
documentaries need to be made. I would
love to make them myself
I don't have the ability to do so, but
these are the people that I would choose
(01:24:25):
These are just two of the people that I
would choose. There are so
many more now with that said
I can't wait for another Netflix
especially comes out as I'm recording
this it comes up tomorrow
There is a woman in there that I've had
on the podcast. She's amazing
I'm not gonna talk about too much of her
right now. She's on this new shark
You know, it looks like a reality show
from what I see and they're taking
(01:24:46):
pictures and they're trying
to get pictures of as many
Different shark species as possible. It
looks great. She's a scientist. She just
graduated from master's degree. She's a
science communicator
She's underwater photographer
She's amazing and I can't wait to watch
that and I can't wait to review that and
have her on the podcast to promote
That these are the people that we should
be, you know focusing on
These are the people that we need to
elevate and I can't wait and the other
people who are on the show with her
(01:25:07):
I can't wait to get to know them
These are some of the great things that
we should do and I want people to watch
the show to really say
Hey, we need to support shows like this
on Netflix and not support too much of
shows like we see in
Ocean Ramses taking credit
Spreading misinformation talking about
wildlife harassment. It's not great,
right showing why life rasa. It's not
(01:25:27):
great. This is my episode
This is my review. I would love to hear
your thoughts whether you'd like it or
not. No judgment here
I want to hear from you
Let me know in the comments below on
YouTube and of course if you're listening
to this on your favorite podcast app
You can get a hold of me
go to speakupforblue.com
contact fill out the form goes right to
my email or you can DM me on Instagram at
how to protect the ocean I want to
(01:25:48):
Thank you so much for listening to this
episode of the how to protect the ocean
podcast. Have a great day
I'm your host Andrew Lewin from the true
north strong and free. Have a great day
We'll talk to you next
time and happy conservation
The Shark Whisperer is out.
I watched it on Netflix.
It's documentary about
Ocean Ramsay and her work
about interacting with sharks.
Very controversial in the science
and ocean conservation world.
Although she captures the
attention of many people.
Of course, why wouldn't you
when you ride a great
white shark in the water?
This is gonna be an
interesting review of this.
(01:00:20):
I already recorded an
episode, it was 40 minutes long.
I'm gonna try and make this less.
So let's start the show.
(upbeat music)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another
exciting episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
I'm your host Andrew Lewin.
And this is the podcast where you find
out what's happening with the ocean.
How you could speak up for the ocean.
What you can do to live for a better
ocean by taking action.
(01:00:40):
If action is what you want to take before
we get into the Shark Whisperer and Ocean
Ramsay and all that.
If you want to take real action, you want
to know how to protect the ocean.
Join the undertow to join this online
community that I'm creating
with two other co-founders.
These amazing women who are
out there trying to do best.
We are trying to help guide you to choose
(01:01:01):
better ways to protect the ocean.
If you don't know, you can learn about
the ocean in this community.
You can learn about how to protect the
ocean better in this community.
Just go to speakupforblue.com forward
slash join the undertow.
That's speakupforblue.com forward slash
join the undertow to join the undertow
and do better at conservation.
So that's what I want you to do right
(01:01:22):
before we start this.
Now let's get into it.
Okay, I recorded this episode before and
it was 40 minutes long.
Did not want to do that to you.
I know attention spans are short.
We have lots to do.
I want you to take this
episode for what it's worth.
It is a documentary about a woman who
interacts with sharks in a bad way.
I'm going to tell you that's a bad way.
She doesn't mean to do in a
(01:01:43):
bad way, but it's a bad way.
She harasses sharks.
It's what she does
and it's shown on video.
I don't mean to degrade her in any way.
I don't mean to be mean to her in any
way, but it's what she does.
And so this has been a topic of a lot of
controversy within the ocean science and
an ocean conservation world.
A lot of people have spoken
out about the work that she does.
(01:02:05):
But the thing is that it
captures a lot of attention.
They take amazing photos of her
interacting with these sharks touching
the sharks pushing them away interacting
with these sharks and she
puts out some misinformation.
So we're going to get into the
documentary what it's about and what are
the problems I have with it really in
terms of it and then some of the things
that I think we need to learn as ocean
conservationists and scientists to say,
(01:02:27):
hey, we need to start capturing the
attention of people and we
need to figure out ways to do it.
That is in a good way and also some
advice for Netflix and
who to actually cover.
So we're going to talk
about that all today.
So let's get into it.
The movie is about Ocean Ramsey.
Ocean Ramsey claims to be a scientist
claims to be a researcher
claims to be a shark whisperer.
Although she says she's not a shark
whisperer in the movie, but the movie
(01:02:47):
says, you know, title is shark whisperer.
But essentially what she's done is she's
created this company where she goes out
and she teaches people
how to interact with sharks.
She wants to show that sharks are gentle.
She wants to show that sharks are not
monsters as some movies like Jaws may
have represented in the past and some
people have represented
people are afraid of sharks.
That is not a doubt.
Everybody there are a lot of people who
(01:03:09):
are afraid of sharks.
People know that
everybody knows that it's fine.
There's nothing wrong with that.
They are predators.
They have big teeth.
They have bitten people before.
It doesn't happen as often
as we think, but it happens.
And when you go in the water, all you
think of is Jaws or all you think of are
these different types of movies about
sharks eating people or hurting people
and it happens in real life at times.
And unfortunately, you know, they get a
(01:03:30):
bad rap because of it.
So people are afraid of sharks.
That fear of sharks has led to the
killing of sharks, whether it's for
fishing or for
tournaments or for anything else.
And sometimes, you know,
people get mad at that.
And sometimes people are like, well, we
need to change the reputation of sharks.
Those people go out and
do it in different ways.
Some people will swim with sharks, not
touch them and do what, you know, Patty
(01:03:51):
says and what all the scuba diving
outfits say and say when you're in the
water, you just look, you don't touch.
That's pretty much what the mantra is
when you're in the water, what you should
be doing, whether you're a scientist or
not, unless you're actually
doing work up on the animal.
You do not touch if you don't need to.
Ocean Ramsey touches.
She has this connection, she says in this
movie, and that's what allows her to
(01:04:12):
interact with these animals.
Now, here's the thing. She anthropomorphizes these animals.
Basically, what she's doing, what that
means is she's attributing human
characteristics to animals where those
human characteristics
are probably not true.
She says she has this
connection with the animals.
She knows the animals and they all have
different characteristics, like they all
have their character.
(01:04:32):
They all act in different ways.
Each individual shark, whether it's a
tiger shark, whether it's an ocean white
tip, each individual shark of that
population of that area will display
different types of characteristics.
That's not in doubt here.
It's whether they're being friendly or
whether they're coming to say hello or
whether they're doing things.
These are animals. These are predators.
They're coming to check you out.
If a shark approaches you, it's checking
you out to say, one, are you food? And
(01:04:54):
two, are you dangerous to me?
If you're dangerous to me, I'm going to
get out. If you're food, I'm going to
come check you out even more.
And so you see a lot of times in the
film, you see, you know, a tiger shark
coming up to Ocean Ramsey.
She puts her hand out. She says, I'm only
waiting until they come to me.
Although there's other shots in the video
where she's actually touching their fins
and things like that.
And there's a shot where a great white
(01:05:15):
came by what everybody
thought was deep blue.
Apparently it's not deep blue. The name
of the shark was a 20 foot
great white shark. It's huge.
And that's what made her popular. She
rode this thing. She held onto its fin
and rode it basically swimming within.
Let it kind of drag her around in a very
peaceful way. And it went viral.
And she claims a lot of things from that.
But, you know, that's what happens. She
rides them. She holds onto their fins.
(01:05:35):
She essentially harasses them. You should
never touch a shark. You never know what
you're going to do that shark.
You never know what's on your hands. You
never know what's on the
sharks, you know, skin.
There's a lot of dangers that can happen.
And plus you don't want to piss off a
shark. Now, she has gone diving with
sharks for a long time.
She probably has thousands and thousands
of hours with sharks in this atmosphere.
But the problem is, is that you never
(01:05:58):
know when a shark is going to turn on
you. For example, there is a shark that's
in the film where she says she has to watch her at all times.
Because this shark will come up. And
normally when she pushes them away, a
tiger shark will actually take a long
route and come back around and then come
visit her again by checking her out to
see if she's actually food.
But this one will come back and turn back
around quick and she has to be careful of
that. This is the thing where I'm saying
(01:06:19):
it's not games these sharks are playing.
These sharks are out there to survive.
They're out there either to protect
themselves or to eat.
That's what they do.
That's the animal kingdom. That's what
happens. Mother Nature is cruel. These
animals have to be just as cruel and
that's how it works. Right. So this is
what we're dealing with from a
perspective. However, the movie makes it
(01:06:39):
sound like she's just
this shark whisperer.
She has this ability to connect with
sharks and the sharks connect with her
and it feels just so spiritual and it
feels just great. It's all BS, but it's
easy to fall for it. It is.
And when I watched it, I was like, oh
wow, like she really does a good job with
all of these sharks and things like that.
You fall for it. It's really easy to fall
for because it's a beautiful depiction of
(01:06:59):
how animals and humans can interact. And
I do believe that she has, you know, a
want to protect these sharks. She sees
these sharks every day when you start to
grow a or not every day, but most of the
days when every time she's out there, she
sees the same sharks come back. You know,
there was one shark that had a crack jaw
or broken jaw and it's sad.
Then it had a fish hook in it and there's
(01:07:19):
a lot of things that were going on. The
problem is, is she's still harassing
sharks. She teaches other people that you
can harass sharks and get away with it
and you can't. You just don't want to do
that because yes, she has thousands and
thousands of hours in
the water with sharks.
But other people who don't are going to
try this. Not everybody because a lot of
us are like, I'm not getting in the water
with sharks without a cage or even just
getting the water with sharks anyway. But
(01:07:40):
there are people who will and there are
people who will try this tactic, whether
it's a great white, whether it's a tiger
shark, whether it's a
Mako shark, any shark.
They will do that and they will get hurt
because of it. And that is dangerous
because what does that do? Not only to
the person hurt the person, but it could
also hurt the reputation of sharks. And
that is what we don't want. We've taken a
lot of time. There's a lot of people who
have taken a lot of time to make sure
(01:08:02):
that these sharks have better reputation,
that they're known as being these
formidable animals and predators, apex
predators, but they need to be protected
and that they're not always after humans.
There have been plenty
of studies to show that.
Dr. Chris Lowe out of the University of
California, Long Beach lab, the shark
lab, and it shows it every day. So that's
something that's really important to look
at. Look at the science. Don't just look
(01:08:23):
at people who are just touching sharks
and getting away with it because I'll
tell you at some point she's going to get
hurt. She even says that it could happen
and that she's okay with it. I'm not okay
with somebody getting hurt. People
watching it or filming it. And also, you
know, that reputation of sharks going
downhill. Let's be honest. The crocodile
hunter had the same kind of thing. Got
killed by a stingray.
An accident and you know he doesn't want
(01:08:44):
anything happened to stingrays, but
people are afraid of stingrays because it
hit the crocodile hunter that it could
hit anybody if people are afraid, but not
going to want to protect and we need all
hands on deck to protect. That's what we
need. Okay, enough on that. I got a lot
of other stuff to go through. So I'm
going to go through that and I'm already
at like 13 minutes. So I've got like a
couple minutes to try and keep everything
down to a good thing. So hopefully my
(01:09:07):
editor will be able to edit this down so
that you can go and get a good timing and get back on to your own.
Okay, let's talk about the conservation
efforts. The one story that really
captured my attention was the
conservation effort that she talks about
a banning sharks in Hawaii, the banning
of shark fishing in Hawaii. Now she talks
a lot about conservation efforts about,
you know, finning. She talks about
(01:09:27):
banning finning and how, you know, 100
million sharks die every day. We know the
deaths of sharks from finning is going
down since it was first reported. But
there are other ways that sharks die. A
lot is overfishing and unsustainable.
Fishing practices and not, you know,
watching them out in the high seas and so
forth. There's a lot of stuff that is
killing sharks and still a lot of sharks
die each and every day shark fishing can
(01:09:49):
be a problem. There are ways that, you
know, sustainable shark fishing can
happen. But what she refers to one thing
before we get into the story of how she
protected or how she helped get shark
fishing banned in Hawaii was the fact
that she talked about fitting and she
talked about finning.
She has B roll of her walking around what
seemed to be in an Asian fishing market
She sees sharks these dead sharks and
(01:10:11):
fins being cut off of these dead sharks
Now that is technically not finning that
is taking the fins off of a dead shark
That is actually very legal in a lot of
places not illegal
legal in a lot of places
If you land the shark, that means you
bring it back dead you fish the shark
You're gonna sell it for its meat. You
can also sell the fins because you want
to use up the entire body
That's a sustainable practice and use of
(01:10:32):
a shark is if you're gonna fish it and if
you don't agree with it
That's fine. But if you're gonna fish it
you should eat all of it
So taking the fins make sense in that
perspective the act of
finning is to go out into the ocean
Right middle the ocean or wherever you
are on the coast wherever and actually
catch a shark keep it alive
Cut the fins off the shark while it's
alive and then throw the shark back while
(01:10:54):
it's still alive without its fins
For it to essentially just die a very
very painful death. That is cruel
That is awful. And I know
some of you will argue that
Hey, you know what killing a shark just
for fishing and different meat is cruel
in itself. I understand that that is
legal in a lot of places
What's illegal is the act of finning
which I just described?
There's meaning in the different words
(01:11:15):
and she misrepresents
what finning is in this film
She's done that before and that matters
to a lot of ocean conservationists to a
lot of scientists and
it should matter to you
Because that's actually legal
That's actually using the shark when you
land it and cut the fins
off to use it for shark fins
That's actually a sustainable way because
you want to use all of the animal, right?
That's a very good way of making sure
(01:11:36):
that we're sustainable
if we are going to fish
For a particular species a shark a
different type of fish, whatever that is
You want to use all of it so that makes
it worthwhile, right?
That's a very big act when you eat
animals is to use all of its parts
So that's one of the things that you
know, and you may not
agree and that's fine
But that's one of the things that I had a
particularly caught my eye and be like
(01:11:56):
well, hold on a second
That's not actually finning now with her
banning of shark fishing within Hawaii
Admirable act she'd
played a role in it. She
partnered up with some other organization
There was an organization and a people
called Hanaka and it was led by this
whole movement was led by Hanaka
And I've got a video to document someone
(01:12:16):
telling you that it was Mackenzie who's
on tick-tock who's been
on this podcast before
She's great. She's a scientist
She's a very great ocean conservationist
and she's a great science communicator
And she is from the island of Hawaii in
Oahu and she knows a lot about that
And she talks a little bit
more than I know about her
So I'll let her talk about that aspect,
but this was a Hanaka led
(01:12:37):
I guess conservation movement and it
worked now she coupled into it
She came into the team as a team and she
used her following to get public support
She also goes around to schools and other
places and communities and teaches about
sharks and what her work does
So that's great. That's admirable. And
she was part of that team
This film this documentary makes it look
(01:12:58):
like she led the whole thing in the film
She said that she didn't get it the
building get passed in
2016 nor in 2017 nor in 2018
It wasn't until 2019 after the video came
out of her swimming
with the great white shark
That's what she says. She attributes the
fact that hey, you know what?
That's what kind of put it over the hump
and got it passed because there wasn't
much opposition of
that because if you swim
(01:13:19):
With a great white and you're not getting
eaten then sharks can't be that bad. We
shouldn't be fishing for sharks
That's what she claims
in the film essentially
But the thing is is when you try and get
policy passed it doesn't
always happen at the beginning
Right doesn't always happen the first
year the second year the third year
Sometimes doesn't happen for 10 years the
Ross Sea Marine
protected area in Antarctica
Took over 10 years to get accepted by 24
(01:13:41):
nations that manage Antarctica
It finally got accepted because you know
the science gets better the
public support gets better
And there's a lot of pressure on all
those countries from their
own people and internationally
(01:14:16):
To have these marine protected areas designated now There are of course other and repre And that's what makes it so
frustrating with conservation
It just takes so much time and a lot of
these animals are dying in the meantime
But I'm sure her followers and her public
support in the gathering of public
support and her persona
herself helped get this passed
But the fact is the movie whether she
means it or not is taking credit for it
Puts a bad taste in everybody's mouth
because ocean
(01:14:36):
conservation is about collaboration
It's about working together as a team
There are people that I know who have
done amazing things in ocean conservation
helped get marine protected areas
designated helped get certain CITES
regulations designated
Do they take credit for it or do they let
other people say hey
this person did this?
(01:14:58):
No, they will be the first to say no
actually I worked with this organization
and this organization did
this part in this process
And everybody gives credit to everybody
doesn't happen all the time
But when it happens that's when you know
the true collaboration is in effect
That's when you know that this person is
admirable this person
Deserves to be in this area because they
just want to get the stuff passed and
(01:15:19):
protected and not take
credit for it even though
Credits do to them right, but now they
don't want to take all the credit
They want to say hey, you know what other
people, you know help get this passed
So that is a big problem and I know maybe
that you're listening to this and you're
a supporter of ocean rams
And you see well, you know what she's
helped anyway, so isn't that great?
It is great
But to take credit for it in this film or
(01:15:39):
what seems to be taking
credit for this she led this
Really puts a sour taste in a lot of
people's mouths that have worked so hard
to put it through now with that said I
Haven't come across anybody speaking out
against it in that thing
That doesn't mean that anybody hasn't but
I haven't seen any reports or any
articles where people are speaking out
against it and that's fine
(01:16:01):
Maybe they did maybe they didn't what I
see is one person taking
credit that leading this
I know differently and that puts a sour
taste in my mouth with this
I wouldn't work with somebody like that
because of it, right?
Whether she has two million followers or
two followers that puts
a sour taste in my mouth
So I think that's thing is it's
transparency. It's
like hey, you know what?
We got this pass was great, but it was a
team effort that
(01:16:21):
didn't show off in the movie
It looked like she led that speaking of
transparency ocean ramsi's education now
Look, you don't have to be a scientist to
do this type of work, you know
You don't have to be a scientist you can
be an advocate you can be an activist
You can be someone who works in policy
and gets into these types of situation
gets public support and do really great
(01:16:43):
work for ocean conservation
But ocean ramsi has
claimed that she is a scientist
However, there's something very different
about her claims compared to what she's
proven or what she's shown
of where she's gone to school
And how she got her credentials
She may have schooling and she may have
credentials and she may choose not to
post it on a website
But she is the first scientist that I
(01:17:03):
have ever met who has not posted their
credentials or talked
about their credentials
And that is a little weird to me. I'll be
honest and it's not against
it if she has it that's fine
But it's causing a lot of controversy
within the scientific community ocean
conservation committees
Like she says she's a scientist
She says she practices science and you
can collect data for a lot of different
researchers and stuff
that happens all the time
(01:17:23):
And you're not a scientist, but she
claims she's a scientist, but she doesn't
talk about being a scientist
She doesn't they not proudly display it
on her website or anything like that
And I feel like that's
a little odd, you know
You want to be transparent you say you
should be proud if she did the work
It's hard work and she should be proud of
what she's done, but
don't claim it and not show it
I think that's a little weird. It's not
like the end all be all but it's a little
(01:17:44):
odd that she's not claiming it
There are people who said that she's gone
to San Diego State University. She's got
a marine biology degree
She got a degree in a master's in animal
behavior. I haven't
seen it on her website
I haven't seen her cut that and actually
say it she's very
mysterious in that kind of way
She doesn't talk about
herself a lot within that respect
She only talks about herself within like
saving sharks as well as
interacting with these sharks
(01:18:05):
So that's a little odd to me. Like I
said, I'm very proud of that. I have an
undergraduate degree
I have a master's
degree. I work very hard for it
It was not easy talk to anybody who's
done a graduate degree. It is sucks. It's
hard. It is very difficult
So if you have it flaunt it and you don't
have to like I said, it's not the end all
be all but it's a little odd to
Me that she's not proudly displaying it
(01:18:26):
or proudly talking about it as she should
be because it is a very
difficult thing to get
It's not easy to get
so that's a big thing
I want to talk about going back to the
interaction when you have cage free dives
and you have cage dives a lot of times
You know, you have to attract the sharks
people attract the sharks using chumming
or sometimes they use hand feeding
Which is kind of crazy when you think
(01:18:46):
about feeding sharks
But a lot of people do it and that's how
they attract the sharks chumming and hand
feeding Ocean Ramsey
says she doesn't do it
And there's no physical evidence that
says she does it at
this point that I could see
However, there have been people and I'll
link to the video below who have said
that she does chum water
that they know people who say
That she chums with the water to attract
(01:19:07):
those sharks. She says she doesn't
There have been apparently videos shows
that there's chum in the water that have
been taken down from social media posts
Nobody that has worked for her is allowed
to talk about it
because they've all signed
NDAs and they refuse to talk about it
because they can't
because they legally can't
Again, the mystery around it whether it's
true or not. I don't
know the mystery around it
(01:19:28):
She says she doesn't do it
But there's you know, some people say she
does and there's been some photos that
have been shown online of some, you know
Sometimes she's been hand feeding and
she's taking those down whether that's
just a once in a
lifetime thing or I don't know
Sometimes you can learn from that, but
she says she's never done it
She doesn't do it. And so that's a little
weird to me again. It comes down to the
transparency of the thing
(01:19:49):
So I think that's difficult now. Let's
talk about the fact
that she's an influencer
She's a big influencer
within the ocean space
She has over 2 million followers on
Instagram and other places and a lot of
people love what she does people have
watched this movie and they
Love what she does. They think she is
amazing. That's great. They don't know
it's very difficult to know
She doesn't talk about a lot of the
controversies. She lets it ride
(01:20:10):
She talks about the
controversies in the film
But it doesn't make it
look like that big of a deal
There looks like there's some researchers
who are on the film who don't agree with
what she does and they talk about that
So it kind of like when I watch I was
like, oh, she's actually,
you know facing it head-on
She's talking about it. She just ignores
it and she just does what she does
But there's still like
something weird about it
It just didn't sit right with me
But she does have a lot of followers and
(01:20:31):
those followers have gone after other
researchers and ocean
scientists and ocean conservation
Who have spoken out and criticized her
for what she does that
is obviously not good now
I don't know if she
says to go out and do it
But the fact is I feel as an influencer
you have that responsibility to kind of
go online is like hey
people if people criticize me
That's fine as part of the job
Please don't go after and you know
(01:20:52):
threaten their lives or this and that and
blah blah blah which has happened
And so, you know when you have a
following like that and people love you
They defend you but it can get aggressive
it can get scary and
that's not good with that
Said having a following is a really great
thing for conservation, right?
You saw it as an example in the film
She talks about you know, basically
inspire her followers to support this
(01:21:14):
movement to ban shark
fishing within Hawaii
Is it huge was gonna save sharks around
the world? No, but it's gonna
save sharks in Hawaii for sure
But you know, it's great to have that
it's great to have that
Unfortunately, it's with probably the
wrong person that can do it for
conservation because she
often provides misinformation
Like I said with the finning she
interacts with sharks, which is not good
(01:21:36):
She teaches people that you can't
interact with sharks
You should interact with sharks and that
can be very dangerous for the sharks as
well as for the people, you know
There's a lot of
controversy here. So why is it?
I always wonder, you know, like why is it
that a lot of people who have followings?
Tend to do some like controversial things
and maybe that's why they have
followings. Maybe
that's why Netflix is like
Hey, let's do a documentary on this
person because it's gonna drum up some
(01:21:58):
controversy just like sea-spiracy did
It's gonna drum up some support because
they have a big following and we'll get a
lot of views and that's
really what it comes out
So they want to make money. They want
people to come to Netflix
and they want to watch it
I would just like to see
other people get the spotlight
People who have done great work people
who are great people
People who want to work with others and
collaborate and do conservation the right
(01:22:20):
way and should get the
spotlight in front of an audience
That has a Netflix type of audience, you
know what I would like to see
I like to see dr
Asha Davos who's a marine mammologist out
of Sri Lanka who discovered the only
population that I think
we know that to this day
I don't know if that's true
But the only blue whale population that
doesn't migrate north or south and stays
(01:22:40):
within the Sri Lankan waters and worked
with the government as a woman
in Sri Lanka worked with
the government of Sri Lanka to
Reroute one of the largest ports in the
Indian Ocean so that they didn't harm
blue whales and other whales in the area
Like think about what that does a woman
in Sri Lanka one woman Sri Lanka
used her ability to do science and
(01:23:02):
conservation and her speaking ability and
her ability to inspire people to get a
government who probably doesn't really
treat women the best
to change and reroute the shipping lanes
of a port of one of the largest ports if
not the largest port in
in the Indian Ocean and
She speaks all over the world to inspire
people all over the world put a show on
her do an entire documentary on her
(01:23:23):
She's amazing. She's a good friend of
mine. So I'm biased. She's amazing. Well,
how would you just do that?
Dr. Asher Davos look her up watch what
she does. She does live streaming a lot
of times with her marine mammal G
Surveys and so forth. She talks about
whale poop, which is
fluorescent orange. It's amazing
You got to do a documentary on Netflix
about her or a good friend of mine Angelo
Villa Gomez do a documentary on him
(01:23:44):
That guy is an amazing guy. He's like a
brother to me. He is so much fun to talk
to he is so interesting
He's got an interesting history, right?
He stands up for people
He does conservation work and he gives
people credit for what they do and takes
away credit from him
Even though he deserves most of the
credit or a lot of the
credit, but he won't do it himself
He's very humble that way do these
(01:24:04):
documentaries. That's what I want to see
I want to see people who have done great
work in the ocean
conservation have a great story
It's time that we start elevating people
who can really command
and inspire an audience
But they need to get in
front of that audience
These are the people that these
documentaries need to be made. I would
love to make them myself
I don't have the ability to do so, but
these are the people that I would choose
(01:24:25):
These are just two of the people that I
would choose. There are so
many more now with that said
I can't wait for another Netflix
especially comes out as I'm recording
this it comes up tomorrow
There is a woman in there that I've had
on the podcast. She's amazing
I'm not gonna talk about too much of her
right now. She's on this new shark
You know, it looks like a reality show
from what I see and they're taking
(01:24:46):
pictures and they're trying
to get pictures of as many
Different shark species as possible. It
looks great. She's a scientist. She just
graduated from master's degree. She's a
science communicator
She's underwater photographer
She's amazing and I can't wait to watch
that and I can't wait to review that and
have her on the podcast to promote
That these are the people that we should
be, you know focusing on
These are the people that we need to
elevate and I can't wait and the other
people who are on the show with her
(01:25:07):
I can't wait to get to know them
These are some of the great things that
we should do and I want people to watch
the show to really say
Hey, we need to support shows like this
on Netflix and not support too much of
shows like we see in
Ocean Ramses taking credit
Spreading misinformation talking about
wildlife harassment. It's not great,
right showing why life rasa. It's not
(01:25:27):
great. This is my episode
This is my review. I would love to hear
your thoughts whether you'd like it or
not. No judgment here
I want to hear from you
Let me know in the comments below on
YouTube and of course if you're listening
to this on your favorite podcast app
You can get a hold of me
go to speakupforblue.com
contact fill out the form goes right to
my email or you can DM me on Instagram at
how to protect the ocean I want to
(01:25:48):
Thank you so much for listening to this
episode of the how to protect the ocean
podcast. Have a great day
I'm your host Andrew Lewin from the true
north strong and free. Have a great day
We'll talk to you next
time and happy conservation
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