Mike Rutzen

Michael Rutzen (born 11 October 1970) is a South African conservationist, filmmaker, and cage diving operator.

As a conservationist, Rutzen has provided field support to the Department of Environmental Affairs of South Africa. Some of his projects include the deployment of satellite and acoustic tags on great white sharks. He is also a member of the Whale Disentanglement Network for the Department of Environmental Affairs, a group of marine experts who assist whales in distress.

Early life

Rutzen was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the youngest of five children. He is the son of Richard Harvey Rutzen, an evangelist in the New Apostolic Church, of Austrian descent, and Marie Rutzen (born Marie Strydom), of Afrikaner descent.

Due to lung complications from his premature birth, Rutzen's father moved the family from the city to the small farming town of Brits in the Northern Transvaal when Rutzen was 5 years old, allowing him and his older brother to benefit from the fresh country air. As the youngest in his family by many years, Rutzen spent most of his childhood alone, exploring the natural bush and the granite hills of the region surrounding the farm. There he learnt skills in bush survival and an understanding of animal behavior, particularly of snakes, baboons, and leopards.

At age 7, he started going to sea on his aunt's boat at the Tugela River’s mouth, where he learned to fish and developed a deep love for the ocean.

Career

1993–present

Mike Rutzen prepares to dive with a Great White Shark for a nature documentary.

After high school, Rutzen enlisted in the South African Defence Force (SADF) as a medic in the 115 Battalion. He spent two years in the bush, honing his survival skills. At the age of 20, he became a commercial fisherman in the fishing village of⁣⁣ Gansbaai⁣⁣ in the Western Cape. In 1993, the shark cage diving industry was established in the area, and Mike was the second local skipper to be employed for his specialized seafaring expertise. He spent time interacting with great white sharks from the boat and observing their behavior during this time.

In 1998, Rutzen began free diving with sharks. In 2000, he established the shark cage diving company, Shark Diving Unlimited, Gansbaai, South Africa.

While in the water with the sharks, Rutzen used his knowledge of animal behavior to understand the sharks' movements and cautiously interact with them. He claims an ability to communicate with the sharks by making his body smaller or larger to attract or deter the animal.

Since 2009, he has supported population dynamics studies and DNA sampling programs being undertaken for the Ph.D. study of Dr. Sara Andreotti (Stellenbosch University), where he sponsored and co-authored many white shark behavioral papers. One such study claims that South African white sharks belong to one larger interbreeding population, and that some of the same sharks sampled in the southwest coast (False Bay), were identified on the east coast (Algoa Bay). It also established that this shark population has extremely low genetic diversity, finding only four mitochondrial lineages, with 89% of the population sharing the same lineage. The study concluded that the South African white sharks have the lowest genetic diversity of any white shark population, putting their long-term survival at risk of extinction due to a higher risk for disease and an impaired ability to successfully reproduce and to adapt to change within their environment.

The Sharksafe Barrier

Rutzen is one of the inventors of the Sharksafe Barrier, which purports to prevent negative encounters between sharks and people. The barrier was conceived in 2011 when Rutzen met Dr. Craig O'Connell, a marine biologist. Rutzen had noticed that sharks did not swim through the local kelp forests, even when pursuing cape fur seals. This observation inspired the idea of a visual barrier resembling kelp, which could potentially become the first eco-friendly alternative to shark nets. O'Connell, who was working on his PhD project exploring the use of electrosensory stimuli—such as permanent magnets—to repel sharks, had achieved success, prompting the two to join forces.

A great white shark

The Sharksafe Barrier is made of four rows of large vertical pipes, each fitted with magnets that move with the ocean currents and tides to manipulate the swim patterns of sharks. These magnets overstimulate the unique electrosensory system of Elasmobranchii (i.e. sharks, skates, and rays), known as the Ampullae of Lorenzini, which detect electromagnetic fields. These are associated with hunting prey and may also be capable of detecting geomagnetic fields (0.25-0.65 Gauss) to orient the sharks during long migrations. This makes the Sharksafe Barrier specific to Elasmobranchii so other marine animals can swim through it without issue.

The Sharksafe Barrier is currently undergoing final scientific and engineering testing ahead of its first beach deployment.

Media presence from 2005–present

Rutzen's first documentary, National Geographic's Beyond Fear, was released in 2005. It described shark behavior and body language and showed Rutzen free diving with great white sharks without a cage. The film was shown internationally on National Geographic Channel.

This documentary was followed in 2006 by "Sharks: Man-Eaters or Misunderstood?", a John McIntyre production in association with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, Sport Diver, and Shark Diving Unlimited, to educate workers at the Blue Planet Aquarium.

In 2007, Rutzen's Discovery documentary "Sharkman" was aired. Rutzen developed the storyline by visiting notable shark experts in their fields. He learned one form of tonic immobility from Dr. Samuel Gruber and another from Christina Zenato, a behavior which would lead him to the initial idea for the Sharksafe Barrier later on.

Sharkman became the Discovery Channel's Shark Week staple for over ten years. In 2009, Rutzen was featured as the "Sharkman" on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper on CBS. Rutzen then joined with BBC Natural World to develop The Great White Shark: A Living Legend (2008 - 2009), in which Rutzen visited a popular seal hunting area to understand white sharks better. He later hosted Shark Night on Discovery French TV (2010).

Rutzen was featured as a shark expert in the IMAX 3D film, Great White Shark 3D (2010) which was filmed in his hometown of Gansbaai and featured underwater and aerial footage. The film was screened in IMAX theatres internationally.

Also in 2010, Rutzen acted as a stunt double and shark behavior expert for Halle Berry's character in the Warner Brothers film Dark Tide, which was filmed in Gansbaai and based loosely on Rutzen's life experiences. Rutzen was also featured as the 'Sharkmaster' on Stan Lee's Superhumans, which investigated his claims that he could indeed interact and communicate with great white sharks using body language.

In a 2012 interview, Rutzen noted that great white sharks "were not the mindless killing machines out to hunt us" portrayed in horror films. He was featured in Linge De Fronte (French TV) "Alerte aux requin" (2013).

On 13 May 2017, he was part of the team that broke the Guinness World Records title for the 'Longest Underwater Live Radio Broadcast' in the Atlantis Ambassador Lagoon aquarium.

Personal life

Rutzen currently lives in Gansbaai, South Africa and Tofino Beach in Mozambique with his two Mozambican beach dogs, wife, and daughter.

Achievements

Rutzen won a Lifetime achievement award at the Tourfilm Festival Prague (2012) for his contribution to extending human boundaries with respect to the world's oceans and his pioneering work with sharks. He was awarded the Princeton Global Network Registry Member of the Year (2012) and the Mayoral's Award for Conservation - Overstrand District, South Africa (2015).

Scientific papers

• Andreotti, S.; Rutzen, M.; Van Der Walt, S.; von Der Heyden, S.; Henriques, R.; Meÿer, M.; Oosthuizen, H.; Matthee, CA (June 2016). "An integrated mark-recapture and genetic approach to estimate the population size of white sharks in South Africa". Marine Ecology Progress Series. 552: 241–253. Bibcode:2016MEPS..552..241A. doi:10.3354/meps11744.
• Andreotti, Sara; von Der Heyden, Sophie; Henriques, Romina; Rutzen, Michael; Meÿer, Michael; Oosthuizen, Herman; Matthee, Conrad A. (October 2015). "New insights Into The Evolutionary History of White Sharks, Carcharodon Carcharias". Journal of Biogeography. 43 (2): 328–339. doi:10.1111/jbi.12641.
• Leurs, G.; O'Connell, C. P.; Andreotti, S.; Rutzen, M.; Vonk Noordegraaf, H. (April 2015). "Risks and Advantages of using Surface Laser Photogrammetry on free ranging marine organisms a case study on white sharks carcharodon carcharias". Journal of Fish Biology. 86 (6): 1713–1728. Bibcode:2015JFBio..86.1713L. doi:10.1111/jfb.12678. PMID 25903107.
• O'Connell, Craig P.; Andreotti, Sara; Rutzen, Michael; Meÿer, Michael; Matthee, Conrad A.; He, Pingguo (November 2014). "Effects of the Sharksafe barrier on white shark Carcharodon carcharias behavior and its implications for future conservation technologies". Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 460: 37–46. Bibcode:2014JEMBE.460...37O. doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2014.06.004.
• Andreotti, S.; Rutzen, M.; Wesche, PL; O'Connell, CP; Meÿer, M.; Oosthuizen, H.; Matthee, CA (April 2014). "A novel categorisation system to organise a large photo identification database for white sharks Carcharodon carcharias". African Journal of Marine Science. 36 (1): 59–67. Bibcode:2014AfJMS..36...59A. doi:10.2989/1814232X.2014.892027.
• O'Connell, Craig P.; Andreotti, Sara; Rutzen, Michael; Meӱer, Michael; He, Pingguo (29 November 2012). "The use of permanent magnets to reduce elasmobranch encounter with a simulated beach net. 2. The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)". Ocean & Coastal Management. 97: 20–28. Bibcode:2014OCM....97...20O. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2012.11.006. Retrieved 6 January 2025.

Public speaking

Rutzen regularly delivers marine conservation and scientific talks to promote the preservation of the Great White Shark internationally. He often shares his views on responsible shark management, conservation and the threats to the ocean, as well as the findings of his scientific field research on the great white shark.

Where	About	Date
Mare Nordest, Grignano, Italy	Understanding The Great White	26 May 2012
Art Cafe - Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa	Scientific research	17 August 2016
Mensa Annual Meeting, Helderberg, South Africa	Scientific research	18 August 2016
Wild Card - Cape Union Mart, Cape Town, South Africa	Conservation of the Great White Shark	24 August 2016
Rotary Club of Stellenbosch, South Africa	Understanding The Great White	28 March 2017
One&Only Cape Town, South Africa	Understanding The Great White	25 May 2017
Helderberg Sunrise Rotary Club, Western Cape, South Africa	The Great White Shark	6 December 2017
Man In Extreme Environment, Trondheim, Norway	The Great White Shark	15 December 2017

External links

• Shark Travel and Conservation Mike Rutzen
• Mike Rutzen's Shark Cage Diving Company
• Sharkman Animal Planet
• White Shark Cage Dive in Gansbaai, South Africa with Mike Rutzen's Shark Diving Unlimited on YouTube
• CNN's Anderson Cooper with Mike Rutzen on Anderson Cooper 360
• The Sharkman meets Michael Rutzen
• Save Jaws! An interview with Mike Rutzen in TUNZA, the United Nations Environment Programme's magazine for youth