On February 4, 2012, ocean filmmaker and educator Mike deGruy was killed in a helicopter crash while on assignment in Australia, along with pilot and filmmaker Andrew Wright. DeGruy (pronounced “degree”) was an Emmy-winning science documentarian and a mainstay of Shark Week; he also worked on James Cameron documentaries about the Titanic and Bismarck and life in the deepest oceans. He swam and scuba-dived in oceans around the world … survived a shark attack himself … and brought back footage of unseen underwater worlds that will continue to amaze and educate for as long as there are curious girls and boys.
Edith Widder: How we found the giant squid
Fascinated by oceanic cephalopods (like octopus and squid), deGruy and his team were the first to film two rarely seen creatures — the nautilus and the vampire squid — in their home oceans. So it’s only fitting that when he met Edith Widder aboard the Mission Blue Voyage in 2010, their talk quickly turned to squids. As Widder details in her new TED Talk, deGruy was the reason she found herself on a Japanese expedition to waters south of Tokyo, where she helped film the giant squid for the first time. She has dedicated this talk to him.
Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus
In this talk from Mission Blue, deGruy tells the moving story of his love for filming the oceans.
Mike deGruy: Lost in the Crowd: A Simple Biology Problem
In 2010, Mike spoke about his passion for the planet in a great talk from TEDxAmericanRiviera that stemmed from his work in the Gulf after the oil blowout.
Mike deGruy: The Evolution of a Spark
In this six-minute film from TEDxAmericanRiviera, meet 10 passionate young people from Santa Barbara who show us how they live big and go after their dreams. They inspire their peers, and even our adult generation, to take pause, wonder, remain curious and playful, and feel that contagious spark that comes from unbridled youth
