Stanton A. Waterman

:: Stanton A. Waterman - Arts - 1968

I am an underwater cameraman, producer of films about the world of diving, lecturer and author.

I started diving as a schoolboy in 1935 using a Japanese Ama diver's mask that had been given to me. During WWll I explored the reefs of Panama with fellow divers in my squadron. We only had masks and snorkels. After the war and living by the sea in Maine I acquired what may have been the first AquaLung in the State of Maine. I was a farmer at the time. I used my new equipment to supplement my income by recovering anchors and moorings and lost equipment for yachtsmen.

Inspired by the writings of Hans Hass and Jacques Cousteau I decided to take a chance at earning my living by working in the sea. I loved diving and was strongly drawn to the sea by the sense of adventure and exploration opened up by SCUBA. I built a boat for the purpose of chartering to divers in the Bahamas and moved there in 1954. Establishing the first small live-aboard dive boat in the area. I worked with my boat, "Zingaro", for three seasons establishing a clientele that ultimately employed me to document on films expeditions of their own far afield in the world's oceans.

Those expeditions took me to the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean, The coast of Patagonia (Argentina), up the Amazon and into the Western Pacific. The documentaries created for my expedition hosts in turn provided lecture films. I had as many as 110 lecture dates a year, taking me across the U.S. and Canada, to the Hawaiian Islands and England. In the summers I went on expedition.

All that was before television arrived. 16mm film lectures were the only game in town. Television emancipated me from the itinerate ardor of the lecture circuit. My documentaries were purchased for t.v. travel and adventure series. I was contracted by the major networks to do the underwater shooting for their own productions.

Peter Benchley and I did 12 productions for the ABC American Sportsman Show and then several more for ESPN. With the success of JAWS Peter moved to Princeton. I lived with my family just a few blocks away. That was the genesis of a wonderful, life-long friendship.

There were intervals during which I worked on the feature films,
Blue Water, White Death and The Deep. For an entire year, 1965-66, I took my family to French Polynesia to live and dive together around Tahiti and the Outer Islands. My documentary of that year became a National Geographic hour special.

Today

Today I host tours on live-aboard dive boats. I help guests with their video shooting and often produce a documentary about the diving areas frequented by the tours. Half of each year is spent on live-aboard dive boats. The Aggressor Fleet takes me to several Caribbean islands as well as Costa Rica, Micronesia and French Polynesia. I work regularly with the Nai'a in Fiji,Tonga and Vanuatu. Every year I also book with the Undersea Hunter to Malpelo and Cocos Islands. My own chartered tours have taken me to Indonesia, Malasia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Australia and the Trobriand Islands. My tours are listed on my website, www.stanwaterman.com

Impact

All the way back to the early sixties I started showing my films to large audiences of divers at film festivals around the country. If, indeed, I have had any impact on people it has most directly been through my presentations to hundreds of audiences. It is possible that my many articles in dive journals - and especially in the late excellent publication, OCEAN REALM - plus the theater-release film Blue Water, White Death, has helped inspire young people to go into the sea. I have often been told so and am always immensely gratified. In a large perspective this may have benefited our sore- bestead planet by inspiring a generation, both young and adult, to venture into the sea. By doing so they will certainly have experienced the exciting magic and beauty of the marine environment as well as its fragility. That can only help to build a consensus for political impact on conservation for an endangered and vital part of our planet.

My Book

This year (2005) a collection of my essays and memoirs, compiled over almost sixty years or writing, was published by New World Publications. The title, Sea Salt. It will not be on the New York Times Internationally Best Seller list, but it is doing well and may even go into a second printing.

Do I Love My Job?

By taking that chance, leaving my farm life and going into the sea,
I propelled myself into a lifetime of splendid adventure and activity that still continues today. I made my avocation my vocation. Robert Frost said that, "Only where love and need are one and the work is play for mortal stakes is the deed ever really done for Heaven and the future's sake"