Shark Whisperer Movie Review (2025)

A documentary about Ocean Ramsey and her quest to understand sharks and raise awareness, Shark Whisperer is a beautiful film that also feels like it leans a little too heavily to one side.

I have never seen the movie Jaws. It is a film staple that has always been full of people’s reported fear of the water, so that was a hard no for me. I don’t like scary movies AND I’m going to watch something that makes me never want to swim in the ocean? I’m good.

Shark Whisperer is a documentary about Ocean Ramsey, a conservationist whose sole purpose is to raise awareness about the gentleness and value of sharks. Specifically working to combat the negative perceptions that people have developed due to films like Jaws, Ocean spends thousands of hours in the water documenting her time with sharks with her cinematographer husband, Juan.

There is a great deal of time invested into discussing the progression of Ocean’s meeting and learning about the sharks that she interacts with. The videos of her in the water with the sharks are absolutely incredible and you can see that she has a deep love and attachment to her purpose.

As I was watching Shark Whisperer, my feelings about Grizzly Man (about Timothy Treadwell, who lived and died with bears) began to creep in. I’m not sure if her handle on the real world vs. her need to interact and live with the sharks is a bit shakier than it appears. It is a beautiful thing to work towards conservation of an animal, and Ocean definitely does that, but there is more lying beneath the surface that began to eat at me just a bit. She doesn’t see (or care about?) the risks.

There is also a small section of the film that focuses on the selling of merch and her social media presence that gave me pause. Both are defined as raising awareness for sharks and glossed over a bit. That left me with some questions about intention, but not so much so that I take anything away from her conservation motives. It just feels… slightly inauthentic. And maybe not as pure as they’d like you to believe. This is a capitalist society, it’s okay to own it, just don’t paint it as something that it’s not.

There are many other conservationists and people with specific shark knowledge interviewed in the film too. There is a ton of narrative provided by Ocean and Juan, but only a few scattered commentaries by these people. I really would have loved to hear more from them.

While most of the focus of Shark Whisperer is on the beauty and necessity of these beautiful creatures (without sharks, the ocean system would be completely out of balance, which would lead to awful things for this world’s ecosystem), I left feeling much like I did with Grizzly Man. Her work is incredibly important in changing the narrative around sharks being “monsters,” but they are still wild animals. You may understand them, but you can’t fully predict them. We need to respect nature and be really really careful with it. I’d love to hear what you took away from this film.

Runtime: 90 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: PG-13

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? Yes

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 3.25/5 Stars

Available: Free on Netflix or may be available for free on other streaming platforms