Waterman first obtained a hand-made Japanese diving mask in the early 1930s, long before they were being made in the West or in common circulation. He first used it as a boy at Palm Beach, Florida.
After returning home from service in the US Navy[3] during World War II, he became the first resident of Maine to purchase an aqualung, designed by Jacques Cousteau.[4]
Waterman graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied with Robert Frost, in 1946 with a degree in English.[5] He began his SCUBA diving career in the Bahamas where he owned and operated a diving charter business from 1954 until 1958. His big break came in 1965 when he filmed a year-long family trip to Tahiti. National Geographic purchased the rights to the work and showed it on television.[6] He was a producer and photographer on the 1971 film Blue Water, White Death which was the first cinematic filming of the great white shark.
Waterman was the subject of a Discovery Channel biographical special titled The Man Who Loves Sharks.[7] Working with his son, he won the first father and son Emmy for the National Geographic Explorer production Dancing With Stingrays.[6]
Television credits include The American Sportsman (1965), The Bermuda Depths (1978), and The Explorers (1973) and film credits include The Deep (1977) and Jaws of Death (1977).[8]
He won five Emmy awards for his work on underwater films and TV programs.[4]
In 2005 Waterman wrote Sea Salt: Memories and Essays, with forewords by Peter Benchley and Howard Hall.[9][10] He also wrote essays for Ocean Realm magazine.
In 2013, Waterman took his last dive in the Cayman Islands at the age of 90.[4]
See also[]
Hans Hass Award – Award in recognition of contribution made to the advancement of our knowledge of the ocean
