In the end people will only protect what they love, and only love what they understand,” Senegalese environmentalist Bab Dioum once famously said.
Sure, that sounds simple when you fall into the ‘cute and harmless’ animal category, however it is less easy to get to know—or indeed, love—an animal when its has the reputation as a ruthless monster.
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic film, Jaws, didn’t help, as it managed to convince half of the human race that all sharks were essentially mindless maneating machines with mouths full of 7.5cm long sharp teeth.
Nor does the fact that highprofile names like Brad Pitt, Tom Hiddleston and Justin Timberlake suffer from galeophobia—a fear of sharks.
In fact, it is rather difficult to find someone who is willing to play the role of shark advocate, especially when any defense of the Great White Shark is pretty much a lost cause, until a case of nominative determinism intervenes.
Born on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Ocean Ramsey’s first interaction with a shark was at the age of eight—and it was love at first sight.
Since then Ramsey has dedicated her life to the sea— notably as an extreme freediver that has captivated the world with her fantastic social media profile depicting the blonde shark whisperer in chilling close encounters with the giants of the blue.
Her face-to-face encounters with tiger sharks and Great Whites sees her swimming without the use of safety cages, in an attempt to dispel common misconceptions and reduce levels of fear and prejudice.
“It is hard to describe the incredible joy and breathtaking emotion you get from looking a Great White straight in the eye, seeing it watch you and then allowing you to swim in its space and touch it,” says Ramsey.
“In general you shouldn’t touch sharks or any type of predator, however some breeds are different to interact with. Some are more curious, and will swim towards you several times and slow down as they pass by.”
It definitely is an adrenaline buzz, but what motivates Ramsey more is studying the behavior of the sharks, and the extremely difficult task to convince the rest of the world to see the feared predator in a different light, and value its place at the top of both the food chain and within the ocean’s ecosystem.
“I don’t see why we can’t redefine our relationships with sharks to be based on scientific fact and logic rather than a fantasy built off of a Hollywood film?” Ramsey explained in a Ted Talk she hosted last year entitled ‘Why the world needs sharks’.
Ironically, mankind is a bigger danger to sharks and not vice versa, with as many as 100 million sharks killed per year. Their worth to human kind, however, is more valuable if they are left in the water rather than in a bowl of soup.
Ramsey works with Hawaii Ocean research projects created to teach the general public how to interact safely with sharks. “The beauty of it is that people can dive with us and see firsthand what sharks are actually like,” says Ramsey who believes that anyone who experiences it will happily join her in the role to advocate for shark conservation.
Mission accomplished.
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