Stan Waterman

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[2] during World War II, he became the first resident of Maine to purchase an aqualung, designed by Jacques Cousteau.[3]

Waterman graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied with Robert Frost, in 1946 with a degree in English.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6] Working with his son, he won the first father and son Emmy for the National Geographic Explorer production Dancing With Stingrays.[5]

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).[7]

Waterman won five Emmy Awards for his work on underwater films and TV programs.[3]

In 2005, Waterman wrote Sea Salt: Memories and Essays, with forewords by Peter Benchley and Howard Hall.[8][9] He also wrote essays for Ocean Realm magazine.

In 2013, Waterman took his last dive in the Cayman Islands at the age of 90.[3] He died on August 10, 2023, at the age of 100.[10]

• Hans Hass Award – Award in recognition of contribution made to the advancement of our knowledge of the ocean

• Stan Waterman at IMDb
• interview in *Gilliam, Bret C (2007). Diving Pioneers and Innovators. New World Publications. ISBN 1-878348-42-6.