Shark Whisperer Ocean Ramsey reveals the only one specific animal she trained with to avoid shark attacks

In Shark Whisperer, Ocean Ramsey, the woman known for swimming alongside great whites fearlessly, reveals something no one saw coming: her shark training didn’t begin in the ocean. Instead, it started in a stable. Long before she ever reached for a dorsal fin, she was working with horses, learning how to guide massive, powerful animals using nothing but presence, patience, and touch.

Sharing this on Instagram, she explains that horses, like sharks, don’t respond to noise or force. They respond to your energy. With horses, Ramsey learned to stay calm when a 1,000-pound animal came charging. She learned to redirect, not resist. To respond, not react. And those lessons translated perfectly into the water.

In the caption, Ramsey wrote:

Redirecting sharks is not for show, it’s for safety and is an essential skill for respectful coexistence. I credit horses and stingrays for also helping me to develop my technique as it is also safer for me to place a hand on my horse for leverage if needed to help us maintain space as we move together so my toes don’t get stepped on and I don’t get trampled. Placing my hand on my horse also allows him to sense me better, so he’s not spooked by my movement around him as I groom him or as he grazes...I think many species pick up on nervousness, excitement, tension, and how much you’re paying attention, etc.

In the video, she adds how she also swam with stingrays as she continued,

"I would dance with them underwater. In some of the places that I grew up with interacting with sharks and stingrays, it helped me to broaden my awareness of other individuals around me to get that nice, underwater, graceful, ocean flow which is so important."

It’s this unconventional cross-species training that helped shape Ramsey’s unique approach to shark safety and conservation. Rather than feeding fear, she emphasizes connection, respect, and understanding, values she credits to her early days with horses. In the doc, this revelation reframes everything we think we know about predator training and human instincts in the wild.

More details about Ocean Ramsay's documentary Shark Whisperer

Netflix’s Shark Whisperer, released June 30, 2025, dives deep into the polarizing world of marine conservation through the eyes of Ocean Ramsey, a viral shark-diving figure and founder of One Ocean Diving. Directed by J.P. Stiles, Harrison Macks, and Oscar-winner James Reed, the film blends breathtaking underwater footage with candid interviews from Ramsey, marine biologists, Indigenous knowledge holders, and both supporters and critics

At its core, Shark Whisperer isn’t just a show‑and‑tell. It’s about advocacy, ethics, and the spectacle of modern conservation. Ramsey, a Hawaii‑native trained in veterinary science turned marine biologist, swims cage‑free with tiger, great white, and other sharks to reframe them not as monsters, but as essential predators in peril

The documentary delves into her signature “redirecting” technique, hand on shark’s nose, gentle pressure, guiding energy, first honed via cross‑species training with horses and stingrays. It also tackles backlash: critics argue she flirts with danger or worse, self‑promotion, while risking human and shark safety

Ultimately, Shark Whisperer offers more than underwater thrills. It challenges viewers to question who gets to tell nature’s story, and what risks we take to change the narrative.

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Shark Whisperer is currently available to stream on Netflix.

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