Shark Whisperer
The director of ‘My Octopus Teacher’ now looks at a more ferocious creature of the deep and at the woman who calls them friend.
Safe in the water: Ocean Ramsey
Image courtesy of Netflix.
There are many ways to destroy the environment. But the slaughter of man-eating sharks is maybe a less obvious route to Armageddon. In-between gobsmacking scenes of the conservationist and free diver Ocean Ramsey [sic] stroking these apex predators, dissenting voices present their own view regarding her activity. Both views are aired. What we do learn is that sharks have been around for 450 million years and they are an integral part of our ecosystem. “If you take out the sharks, then you’ve got a ripple effect down through the rest of the food chain,” explains Prof. Kim Holland, who founded the shark research group at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. And yet mankind is murdering 100 million of the fish a year, many millions in order to flavour shark fin soup. “We need a healthy living ocean,” continues the oceanographer Dr Sylvia Earle. “We need all the pieces to be working as they have worked long before there were humans. Sharks are a critical part of what makes the ocean function.”
Shark Whisperer is many things and it doesn’t shy away from the horrific legacy left by many of the creatures. But according to one report, more people are killed every year by champagne corks than from shark attacks, yet nobody has gone out of their way to ban champagne.
Shark Whisperer is a balanced analysis of our relationship with the fish and is another feather in the cap for the British documentarian James Reed, who won an Oscar for his 2020 Netflix release My Octopus Teacher. But here it is a woman who swims centre stage, a highly attractive ambassador for marine conservation who gives David Attenborough a run for his money. Softly spoken, blonde and svelte, Ocean Ramsey is like an Ariana Grande of the Deep, and knows how to use her looks to sell her mission. “This is what I’m alive for,” she tells us. And regarding the risks of her vocation, she says, “I’m good to go any time… it’s not the years in your life, it’s the life in your years.” She has no fear and it seems that her aquatic companions sense that, even a 20-foot Great White deemed to be currently the biggest in the ocean.
This is also the story of a friendship, as the loyal chronicler of her deeds, Juan Oliphant, is an underwater photographer who would seem to be willing to follow her to the ends of the blue planet. “But as a surfer growing up in Hawaii, I was petrified of sharks,” he laughs. Nevertheless, he has been there to capture these remarkable images, not least a shot of his leading lady, a dolphin duet and a Great White – all in the same frame. It’s a wondrous, spellbinding, beautiful and shocking odyssey.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Featuring Ocean Ramsey, Juan Oliphant, Dr Sylvia Earle, Kim Holland, Mike Bolton, Keoni TeTawa Bowthorpe, Roxy the tiger shark.
Dir James Reed, Pro Krista Killian, Ph Peter Hutchens, Ed Sam Rogers and Matt Tickner, Music Roger Goula and Sam Thompson.
Boardwalk Pictures/One Ocean Media/Underdog Films III-Netflix.
90 mins. USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 30 June 2025. Cert. 12.
