MAN & SEA

hyperbaric medical operations. in 1999. His entrepreneurial successes He is considered to be one of the in the diving industry have made him a pioneers in diving, and led the multi-millionaire. The aggregate value industry’s evolution and growth of his companies when sold was in from 1971 into the new millennium. excess of USD80 million. He is currently Bret is one America’s most president of the consulting corporation, experienced deep divers and holds Ocean Tech. the world depth record for compressed Bret has also written over 1,500 air diving at 149 metres, set in 1993. articles and worked on 69 books on Since beginning diving in 1959, Bret diving, maritime operations, diving has logged over 19,000 dives around emergency medical procedures, the world. His background includes dive training manuals, photography, scientific expeditions, military and and others. He has won several commercial projects, operating awards in various fields. hyperbaric diving treatment medical Brett currently lives on an island facilities, dive vessels and in Maine, travelling extensively on luxury yachts, retail dive stores and diving and maritime business, Caribbean resort operation and filming expeditions. He has a and ownership. custom-built motor yacht for wildlife Bret has founded and sold six photography projects and other corporations V.I. Divers Ltd, Ocean expedition filming usage, located in Quest International, AMF Yachting New England. Group, G2 Publishing Inc, DiveSafe Bret formed the Diving Legacy Insurance, and International Training Foundation in 2005, which makes Inc) since 1971. As vice president and generous financial grants and support CEO, he was instrumental in taking for ocean conservation, scholarships UWATEC public in a sale for USD44 for diving education, honorariums million to JWA in 1997 and sold his to diving pioneers, and funds publishing company (Scuba Timesand humanitarian aid projects in remote Deep Tech) to Petersen/E-Map regions of the developing world.

THE SEA SPECIALIST: AN INTERVIEW WITH

ABOVE Gilliam working with BRETAsian GILLIAMDiver a dolphin on a movie Interview by: production in 1979 Most people learn to crawl before they walk, but there is a RIGHT man who learned to swim before taking his first steps. Diver, Valerie Taylor and Gilliam entrepreneur, writer, athlete, maritime specialist – aboard a dive vessel in the Raja Ampat Islands, is the complete package. Just add water. Indonesia, 2018

FAR RIGHT Captain Bret Gilliam is a master of areas of , water Gilliam with his 2012 NOGI award alongside his many trades. With a career spanning sports, maritime and shipping, induction into the AUAS almost five decades in all the different underwater filming, and emergency Diving Hall of Fame

59 THE SEA SPECIALIST: AN INTERVIEW WITH BRET GILLIAM MAN & SEA

Recently, Asian Diver was on my own in Florida when I was Association of and fortunate enough to catch up six. In 1959 my father bought a Technical Divers (IANTD) with Bret, who graciously 25-metre motor yacht named with Mount and Rutkowski, shared his insight and Argo and moved the family but I exited in 1994 to found knowledge. The interview aboard and we were assigned International covered his personal and to Key West. He hated having (TDI) and it became the largest business history, the state of to move into a new house every certification agency of its kind the seas, and his and two years or so when he got in the world. TDI just celebrated upcoming projects. transferred to a new naval its 25th Anniversary with a big station so the yacht made party at DEMA attended by over ASIAN DIVER: You’ve said perfect sense, but in that era a thousand guests. Quite a night! that your father worked closely it was very unusual to meet a ABOVE But I could see that the with the seas, and that his family that lived on a yacht. But Gilliam’s best-selling book on business model would work has sold over 100,000 copies in seven guidance was instrumental in in my little universe this was my languages to date since I always embraced new shaping your love for the water. reality and I loved our life. technology and innovations to Did you always see yourself That same year we watched equipment design and operational FAR LEFT LEFT as a water baby or is it the first episodes of Lloyd Bret doing Bret conducting protocols. Technical diving also something that was cultivated Bridges’s new TV series “Sea experimental deep the first international was a key platform to introduce diving as part of a training programme based on circumstances? Hunt” that brought Navy team filming for Draeger electronic diving computers for into people’s homes for the first submarines for stealth in 1994 increased efficiency and safety. BRET: I don’t think I really time. I was totally fascinated protocols in 1971 in at a TDI conference Computers had been resisted the Virgin Islands. in Nassau, Bahamas had a perspective since and my dad let me take diving Gilliam descended to by a lot of the “old school” I was so young when I started lessons and get certified at the 160 metres on along with things like nitrox. snorkelling, diving, and running ripe old age of eight. How many This was primarily due to a lack boats. My father was a senior parents would do that? of understanding about how all naval officer and I was born By the age of 10, I had started not injured. My customers I had to hire a young naval deeper diving, cave and wreck this worked. at the U.S. Naval Academy. a fish collecting business and included several schools as officer to drive me around exploration, alternate I authored several books I learned to swim before I could was selling my tropical fish well as the Key West Aquarium on the deliveries since I was gases, specialised equipment that covered these topics as walk and I was off snorkelling caught in traps so they were and the Miami Seaquarium. too young to operate a car. like rebreathers, proprietary well as other complicated Ironically, my dad let me models, etc. diving subjects, techniques head out to sea in our Boston But for guys like me coming and procedures that fully Whaler by myself to do the from a background as a military, detailed things in everyday fish collections without any commercial and scientific/ language that divers could worries at all. He trained me saturation diver, I had already understand without a medical well in boating skills. His been completely immersed or scientific background. mentorship really charted the in such activities since 1971. My 1994 book Deep Diving: path on my career. With my Others like myself with similar An Advanced Guide To Physiology, diving experience and maritime backgrounds ended up stepping Procedures and Systems was background, I think it was forward and trying to guide really the first of its kind and inevitable and predictable that and mentor people from the became a best seller. It ultimately I went down that path. I sure groups so they sold over 100,000 copies in wasn’t going to end up as an had the right information and two editions in seven languages. insurance salesman! didn’t kill themselves! And, of course, all this new stuff Most of the other earlier became mainstream practice in ASIAN DIVER: How did you get leaders in technical diving spite of the uninformed critics. into technical diving, and what included , about it made you pursue this , , niche for all these years? , , FAR LEFT LEFT Bret learned to swim Father, Cdr. Gill Rob Palmer, Lamar Hires before he could walk. Gilliam, and sons BRET: “Technical diving” was a and a handful of other Here, he practises his Chris and Bret term that started being used in innovators. I was one of the skills in 1953 aboard Argo at about age two in the in Key West, 1960 the very late 80s and applied to founders of the International Navy swimming pool

60 61 THE SEA SPECIALIST: AN INTERVIEW WITH BRET GILLIAM MAN & SEA

ASIAN DIVER: You have been Silver Bank, the Arctic and ASIAN DIVER: Your company an entrepreneur since the age Antarctic and even deep Ocean Quest was the largest of 10! Could you share more submersible dives to over diving operation in the world. about your first profitable 914-metre depths. How did that start? business venture, and what When I sold the last of them made you delve into it? in 2005 the aggregate sales BRET: I was originally brought totalled right at USD80 million. in as a consultant to advise the BRET: My fish collecting So things worked out pretty group of investors on what they’d business was my start but it well from that modest need for a vessel, its dive boats, was small scale and I was a beginning. My instincts were itinerary, crewing, and all the kid. Later as an adult when good and I offered superior other details for a startup in I finished my work with an products combined with an such a specialised trade. I had to experimental Navy excellent staff that embraced explain that their original ideas in 1971, I wanted to see if my attitude for gracious about just about everything were I could come up with a customer service. To me, it was inherently flawed. They wanted different sort of business just common sense. I’ve had to use too small a vessel, dive model for sport diving and three generations of customers launches that were too small, founded V. I. Divers Ltd. in St. that stuck with me for decades. ports that really didn’t offer a Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. If you give the customer a great diving experience, etc. I incorporated retail, training, satisfying experience and treat To my surprise, they listened filming, vessel operations them right, they’ll stay with you. to me and I ended up as an and an expanded offering of equity partner and made all the BELOW Gilliam and staff at V. I. Divers Ltd. in St. diving adventures that other Croix, 1976. The company grew to be the largest operational decisions including competitors didn’t really do. diving operation in the eastern Caribbean being Master of the vessel The company grew rapidly and by 1976 we had grossed over a million dollars in sales for the first time. That was unheard of for a sport and CEO of the company. We diving company back then. acquired the original flagship “We acquired the original Growth continued and V. I. of Norwegian Cruise Lines, flagship of Norwegian Divers Ltd. became the most called Sunward I, and renamed Cruise Lines, called successful diving business in it Ocean Spirit. It was operating Sunward I, and renamed the Caribbean. That original then in the Persian Gulf and was company that I started at in poor cosmetic condition but it Ocean Spirit.” the age of 22 cash flowed excellent mechanically and its all my expansions into other infrastructure was fine. The ship was over 152 segments, including a large I sent it to Singapore for a metres in length, 18,000 13 vessel luxury yacht charter complete renovation including tonnes, and 10 stories high. fleet, a diving cruise ship adding guest suites to the When divers came aboard company called Ocean Quest accommodations, total interior as passengers they couldn’t International, a publishing design redo, ten 8.5-metre diesel believe the size. They were corporation for books and dive boats, a full size hyperbaric used to getting shoe-horned magazines, training agencies, treatment recompression into small bunk beds of manufacturing (UWATEC), chamber, and refined the of the era and and a high-end exotic diving cruise route to depart from jammed into small salons travel operation that offered New Orleans and visit , as the only social areas. experienced divers the best Mexico, the offshore atolls of Our ship had five restaurants, diving in the world to places Belize, and Roatán and Guanaja like Indonesia, Papua New in the Bay Islands of Honduras. ABOVE Ocean Quest International’s 152-metre, Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Excellent diving back then when 18,000-tonne cruise ship off Belize in 1989. This was the largest diving operation in the world, Micronesia, Fiji, Tonga, the we started operations in 1988. conducting over 80,000 dives annually

62 63 THE SEA SPECIALIST: AN INTERVIEW WITH BRET GILLIAM MAN & SEA

three nightclubs with great live and the beauty queens were and trained people on them with entertainment, a movie theatre quite fun. the first certifications on such with first run Hollywood films, a We also did a lot of movie instruments. We also allowed spa, a casino, a gym, and even a and documentary work including deeper diving, cave exploration, 4.5-metre deep swimming pool. comedian Adam Sandler’s first shark diving, the latest in In addition to our regular movie called Going Overboard. cruises we also did special It also included actors Billy Bob equipment and training, and charters and projects. In 1989 Thorton and Val Kilmer in some a total luxury experience with we were chartered to host of their first movie roles. We large staterooms that simply the contestants for the Miss definitely had a lot of fun on so were unheard of in regular Universe contest in Cancún many of the voyages! diving vessels. since they wanted to all stay I had a great dive staff We carried an average together in one facility and and we offered boats to match of 400 passengers and had didn’t like the available hotel the divers’ experience and 228 crew including the dive staff. offerings. So they chartered interests. We supplied the The guests loved the experience a cruise ship! We loved it early versions of dive computers and we had many divers come several times a year since it offered such a unique itinerary and you just had to fly into New Orleans. We sold the company to Sea Escape Cruise Lines in September of 1990. Ocean Quest remains the largest diving operation of all time. We average 80,000 dives annually… that was beyond the industry’s imagination at the time. But my concept was well thought out and ASIAN DIVER: In your many executed. It was a very years as a diver, we’ve heard that extreme depth and then ASIAN DIVER: We know special experience and that you’ve been in some was airlifted out for treatment that the state of our waters I really enjoyed it. life-threatening situations. of the bends to Puerto Rico. has changed over the last Could you share your most In retrospect, it was close 50 years, especially in regards memorable escape? to a miracle that I survived. to climate change and pollution. It’s still the deepest free You have no doubt seen this “We carried an average BRET: Probably my closest ascent that any diver has transformation happen of 400 passengers and brush with death was in 1972 managed to pull off and firsthand. Could you share had 228 crew including when two oceanic whitetip survive. The incident has how this has impacted diving sharks attacked one of our dive been featured in many for you, both in terms of your the dive staff.” team members on a scientific books as well as a BBC career and passion? project and were dragging him television documentary. It TOP OPPOSITE PAGE over the drop-off wall at Cane was an emotionally draining BRET: I’ve now been diving Capt. Bret aboard LEFT One of many books Bay on St. Croix’s north shore. experience to lose a close for over 60 years and cruise ship Ocean that feature the story of Spirit, off Belize Bret’s shark attack survival; I went to his rescue and tried friend under such tragic remember the days when 1989 headline in local newspaper, to fight the sharks off but we circumstances. I have no the reefs of Florida, the October 17, 1972 ended up getting dragged down regrets about going back Bahamas, and the Caribbean to a depth of nearly 114 metres to try to rescue him… it were virgin and in superb BOTTOM OPPOSITE PAGE or more. He ended up dying was an instinctual reaction. condition. Sadly, that began to Gilliam (far right) RIGHT Cave entrance, and staff at 1988 Solomon Islands underwater and the sharks But someone was looking deteriorate in the early 90s and DEMA show IMAGE: Bret Gilliam dragged him from my grasp down at me and gave me the conditions have continued introducing Ocean and into the abyss. I had to do the strength to survive. to decline. I shifted most of my Quest International to the industry an out-of-air free ascent from His body was never found. attention to the Indo-Pacific

64 THE SEA SPECIALIST: AN INTERVIEW WITH BRET GILLIAM MAN & SEA

“I urge all divers to get Anyone can save a life. out and see things while they still can because it’s not going to last.” OSHA and ILCOR compliant! ASIAN DIVER: As a pioneer of modern diving with over six decades of experience, what advice do you have for budding divers?

BRET: Get good training and practical experience to acquire independent diving skills. A regular course is just a start. Keep diving with a trusted Be ready for an emergency— instructor and get practical For more information on how to be experience in a wide variety certiied or to teach our programs, visit: of conditions, depths, and equipment. Wherever you www..rstresponse-ed.com start your diving experience will be interesting to a newcomer but try to get out and see the best stuff left in the world before it’s gone.

and have enjoyed nearly Whether you call it “climate 30 years of exploration in change” or “global warming”, those regions. But I’ve also the reality is that water witnessed firsthand the have risen sharply downturn in biodiversity and in the last three decades and the health of corals and fish it has had a terrible effect on species. I was stunned in 2018 corals and marine life. Pollution when I was back in the Raja is a huge component as well. Ampat Islands in Indonesia I’m not optimistic that the TOP LEFT after being away only two oceans can recover. I’m truly Gili Banta Island, years. The biodiversity had blessed to have been able to Indonesia experienced close to a 70 dive and film the underwater IMAGE: Bret Gilliam percent loss in both corals and world at its apex. We will not marine life. Equally depressing see those days again. I’m still TOP RIGHT On the deep drop-off, was the unbelievable amount actively diving worldwide, but Solomon Islands of plastic pollution present in it’s an experience that does not IMAGE: Bret Gilliam the ocean. There were some come close to what it used to be. dives where we swam through I urge all divers to get out and RIGHT plastic from the ocean surface see things while they still can School of jacks off Mary Island, to the bottom depths. So sad… because it’s not going to last. Solomon Islands I don’t see a viable . IMAGE: Bret Gilliam

67 MAN & SEA

My favourite region is Indonesia expedition vessel for a client and the Solomon Islands on the in Dubai. This vessel will high-end liveaboard vessels. continuously circumnavigate The clock is ticking… the world visiting the most interesting diving places ASIAN DIVER: You are currently including the polar regions. involved in consulting onvessel All you need is about USD500 construction and operations, million to finance such a www.samstours.com as well as litigation consulting project! I greatly enjoyed it and on diving and maritime have a similar contract coming Scuba diving • PADI dive courses • Liveaboard legal cases, and you dive as up with an Asian client. Kayaking • Tours • Land Tours well as contribute articles and photographs to various publications. What projects RIGHT Diving with a female humpback on early are you currently working on? , off Silver Bank, 1994

BRET: I just completed the BOTTOM LEFT BOTTOM RIGHT Humpback whale Mother and calf design and construction of doing tail wave, humpbacks, a 115-metre luxury diving Tonga 2017 Tonga, 2017

“I’ve been diving with whales since I was a teenager and find humpbacks to be fascinating.”

ASIAN DIVER: Bonus question! There are dog people and there are cat people. Which particular marine animal do you have a soft spot for?

BRET: I’ve been diving with whales since I was a teenager and find humpbacks to be fascinating. They’re gregarious and social and seem to enjoy contact with humans that understand their behaviour and how to blend in. It’s been a privilege to film them in the North Atlantic, the Silver Bank, Hawaii, Tonga, Alaska and a variety of rarely visited regions that most people aren’t aware of. It’s a very special experience and I’ve been so lucky to know [email protected] them as friends. AD Tel: +(680) 488-1062 68 69