Interview with Underwater Cinematographer Jeff Hester from “Hammerhead Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory” 

National Geographic returns for its 14th annual Sharkfest with a new documentary about Hammerhead sharks. To learn more about the role of Hammerhead sharks in the ecosystem, I dove in with underwater cinematographer Jeff Hester.

Jeff Hester is an award-winning director of photography and producer specializing in underwater wildlife. His work is predominantly focused on natural history documentaries like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, and Our Planet. Now he joins the team for Hammerhead Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory to explore Mexico’s Pacific waters to find one of the Earth’s most visually iconic sharks.

The Geekiary: How does someone get into doing underwater cinematography and marine biology?

Jeff Hester: Everyone has a bit of a different pathway into it because it’s such an unusual career. But for me personally, I studied marine science in college, and so I did a lot of scientific diving. Right out of college, I started working at the National Ocean Atmospheric Administration. I ended up getting this fellowship that allowed me to travel around the world for a year and do a lot of diving, and they wanted me to document that whole experience. And through that, I realized and encountered different people who were working as underwater cinematographers and realized that could be a career path.

And so, you know, prior to that, I kind of went down the academia route, but then I realized I could dive with animals and see these amazing ecosystems. I would get to tell more of those stories about how we can work to be more sustainable and save some of these animals. So that was kind of my pathway into it. And then I worked more as an apprentice for a couple years before making the jump into being an underwater cinematographer myself. It’s such a cool job that so few people have. It’s so fascinating. 

What were you doing as a team to prepare for this documentary? 

There was a lot of logistical complexity because we were moving around a few different locations, and one of the sites, specifically for the Hammerheads, is pretty remote. It’s way out in the middle of the Pacific. And so there was just a lot of logistical prep coming into it, and also trying to figure out what’s the safest way to dive. So a lot of that, you know, risk assessment goes into it of, you know, what can we do to make sure that everyone’s going to be safe and no one’s going to get hurt?

Story-wise, typically we go in with a pretty good idea of what we want the story to be. But because it’s wildlife and it’s the natural world, nothing runs on a script, unfortunately, but also, fortunately, because it’s cool. We get to craft the story as it goes. We really get to stretch the creative muscles while we’re encountering these really cool different wildlife events. 

The thing I liked about this documentary is that it felt very different from, you know, the traditional Shark Week that I grew up watching. I really appreciated the change in tone, and I know that there’s like a bigger cultural shift to how people think about sharks now. Have you noticed that shift happening from your career perspective? 

When I was growing up, Jaws was the frightening movie that scared everyone out of the water, including myself. It’s been cool to see, especially over the past decade, that people have started to gain much more of an appreciation for sharks and a much better understanding of how important they are for the ocean and for the ecosystems. 

I think a lot of that is just more exposure. For better or for worse, there’s a lot on social media now of people interacting with sharks. I think it does come with its pros and cons, but I think that has kind of normalized shark encounters a little bit. Everyone has a GoPro and can take it underwater, and that’s a lot of people’s vacation now. They want to go dive with sharks. And I think that repetitive exposure that sharks aren’t what we thought they were has been really important for shifting that narrative around sharks. 

One thing that I didn’t quite exactly notice until watching this documentary is that the shark cage that people used to get into when they were doing cinematography is gone now. When did that shift happen? 

I think it depends a little bit on what type of shark species you’re interacting with. There is a level with certain species of sharks, Great Whites for instance, or depending on the location, we would still approach from a cage. One of the things that we want to make sure that people still understand is that we need to respect the sharks. This is their environment, their home. I think we’ve just gained a much better understanding, both scientifically and experientially, of what their behaviors look like and how to approach. 

Are you also a big fan of the Hammerhead or do you have a different favorite? 

I am a big fan of the Hammerhead shark. That is my favorite shark. I think that’s what’s really cool about a lot of the different shark species is they’re all so well suited for their environment and for what they eat. They’re just very well adapted. Sharks just have so many cool superpowers. They have this massive head that’s full of sensory organs; it’s like this giant metal detector that they’re cruising around and looking for food. Their eyes are way out on the edges to see stingrays and other prey.

I mean, they look so interesting, but, you know, all of these things are so important for them to be able to interact with their environment. So yeah, they’re my favorites. Being amongst them is just incredible. Some of those moments just make you speechless, and those are some of the most unforgettable dives on this show and of my life too. 

At the end of the documentary, when the dolphins are leading the crew to the Hammerheads, was that an organic moment that just kind of came about?

So, that’s one of those moments that I feel like people are going to watch and be like, there’s no way that happened. But it actually happened. It was so crazy. So, yeah, we were just sitting in the water column, and these dolphins, for whatever reason, they swam over, and they just went completely vertical. And they wouldn’t leave us alone. They were just staring into our eyes, and it was just such an unusual encounter where this animal really wants to connect with us, for whatever reason. Then they swam off, and we followed them and this massive school of Hammerhead sharks.  Dolphins have a level of intellect that we don’t fully comprehend or understand. It was just such a mind-blowing experience. 

Another part that I found really fascinating, and I actually really appreciated, is when the team was talking about the shark hunting industry. It nicely balances bringing sympathy to the animals and the humans, who are both trying to survive. 

It’s so easy to look at the people that are doing the actual fishing and villainize them. But for a large number of these people, it’s the only way they can make money. It’s the only way they can feed their family. And I think, oftentimes, we like to look at things and make them black and white, make them super simplified when it’s a much more complex thing that needs to be addressed. I think that’s one of the things that we really want to make sure with any documentary that we put out there. These are human beings, and they’re going out, and they’re doing something that’s legal because it’s the only way they know how to feed their family. 

I think one of the really cool things that came about through some of those interactions with the shark fishermen is that one of the things we had heard from a younger shark fisherman was that his children were now watching nature documentaries, and pressuring their dad to stop shark fishing. They’re so much more educated about, you know, what the world looks like.

That still doesn’t address the issue of, you know, what else are they gonna do? How else are they gonna make money? But that’s one of the really cool things about this nonprofit that we worked with for the show. They’re paying these shark fishermen to help us go out and tag these sharks. And so, they become researchers in a sense, you know, field biologists. No one has a better understanding of where those sharks are, what times of year, what times of day, than the shark fishermen have been doing it for decades. It’s really cool that they’re trying to give the fishermen this alternative way to make a living that doesn’t have to do with killing sharks. 

And the fishermen, they don’t want to do that. You hear from one of our characters in Magdalena Bay that he used to be a shark fisherman, and he figured out how to do tourism, how to take people out and look at the animals. But, you know, that has its own costs involved with it that he was fortunate to be able to get out of. 

If we protect these places, protect these animals, and get communities to buy into that protection, things can recover. These animals can come back from the brink. And it happens relatively in a short time span. The Baja Peninsula and the Gulf of California, they are recovering. And that’s because people have started caring about them and protecting them. What they did can be used as a blueprint all around the world.

Ultimately, to protect the sharks means we have a healthy ocean, which means we have a healthy planet, which means we can have healthy human beings. Hammerhead sharks, like most other sharks, are apex predators, and so they essentially keep the whole food web in a healthy state. If they didn’t eat enough of the things below them, then they can become overpopulated and eat too much of the coral or the algae or the kelp. So they’re really like ecosystem architects in that they are managing the balance. 

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Deep dive into Hammerhead Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory on July 5 on National Geographic, then on Disney+ and Hulu the next day. 

And don’t forget to tune in throughout the month for more fin-tastic Sharkfest.

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