Ramón Bravo (21 October 1925 – 21 February 1998) was a Mexican diver, photographer and underwater filmmaker. Bravo was the person who made the phenomenon of ''Sleeping sharks'' known to the world.
Biography
Bravo was born in
Piedras Negras, Coahuila in northern Mexico from his parents Juan Bravo, a railroader, and María del Rosario Prieto. Bravo was first known as a famous Mexican swimmer and competed in the
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...
.
Also played as
Wide receiver
A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...
in
UNAM football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
team. Thanks to his close friend
Apolonio Castillo in the late 50s, Bravo began to dedicate himself to diving and underwater photography– gaining him fame in both in the United States and Europe as an
oceanographer. Bravo developed a fascination for sharks and devoted a large portion of his life to filming and studying sharks. He is widely known for the discovery, study, and photography of "sleeping sharks"
near
Isla Mujeres in the Caribbean where sharks were seen there to be "sleeping" on the ocean floor.
Bravo was the first person to dive and film with
orcas
The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopoli ...
in their natural state without a protective cage in the frosty waters of
Islas San Benito in
Baja California
Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...
, Mexico or
polar bear
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can Hybrid (biology), interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear ...
s swimming at the North Pole, where even one bit his left heel.
The sleeping sharks
It was Ramón Bravo in the 1970s, who made known to the world how ''sharks sleep'', after the
lobster
Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...
fisherman Carlos García, nicknamed "Válvula" (the "Valve" in English), discovered them in a place known as "Los Cuevones" (The big caves). At first Bravo did not believe "Válvula" because scientists said that sharks could not sleep, that they must be constantly moving because they lacked a
swim bladder
The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled organ (anatomy), organ in bony fish that functions to modulate buoyancy, and thus allowing the fish to stay at desired water depth without having to maintain lift ...
he initially thought that they were harmless
nurse shark crawling on the sand, but due to the insistence of "Vávula", finally Bravo went to verify the discovery of the fisherman then he verified and filmed that
tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...
,
mako
, better known by the mononym name Mako (sometimes stylised MAKO), is a Japanese Voice acting in Japan, voice actress, singing, singer and a member of the band Bon-Bon Blanco, in which her prominent role is as the maraca player. She has also perf ...
,
whitetip or
bull
A bull is an intact (i.e., not Castration, castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol cattle in r ...
sharks rested peacefully on the white sands in caves of the Caribbean Sea and, later, shared the discovery with Dr.
Eugenie Clark, a member of the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is the center for oceanography and Earth science at the University of California, San Diego. Its main campus is located in La Jolla, with additional facilities in Point Loma.
Founded in 1903 and incorpo ...
of
La Joya, California. Dr. Clark's scientific explanation was:
Bravo also served as guide and
cameraman
A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not necessarily imply that a male is performing the task.
...
to
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the A ...
, his son
Philippe and his divers of the ''
Calypso'', into the cave of sleeping sharks and reefs surrounding Isla Mujeres resulted in a documentary called, ''The Sleeping Sharks of Yucatan'' where Ramón Bravo appears in the credits. The investigations of Ramón Bravo were not without dangers, since on more than one occasion he was injured by the sharks he used to film. One of them (a bull shark) bit him, causing a serious injury to his left forearm, at the elbow, which required urgent surgery and intensive care for several weeks.

Also a well-known journalist and writer during the mid-1960s and 1970s, he wrote, among others, the following novels and works:
* Primero y touch, segundo y muerte (1961)
* Bajo las aguas del Mar Rojo (1962)
* Isla Mujeres (1972)
* Holbox (1974)
*
Tintorera (1975)
* Buceando entre Tiburones (1975)
* El cenote de la muerte (1976)
* El cisne negro (1976)
* Un tesoro bajo el mar (1977)
* Carnada (1978)
* Buceando en el Polo Norte (1979)
* Un tesoro bajo el mar (1979)
* Buceando entre las Orcas (1982)
* La siesta del tiburón (1984)
* Sirenia (1987)
* El Chinchorro (not completed, about the protected zone of Mahahual)
One of his novels later became a film called ''
Tintorera'' (1977) directed by René Cardona Jr. The underwater photography was by Ramón Bravo. He also photographed and directed underwater scenes of the
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
movie ''
Licence to Kill
''Licence to Kill'' is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond (literary character), J ...
'' (1989) starring
Timothy Dalton
Timothy Leonard Dalton Leggett (; born 21 March 1946) is a British actor. He gained international prominence as the fourth actor to portray fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, starring in '' The Living Dayli ...
. Although uncredited, Bravo played the zombie that fought the tiger shark underwater in
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including Commedia all'italiana, comedies and spagh ...
's ''
Zombi 2
''Zombi 2'' is a 1979 English-language Italian zombie film directed by Lucio Fulci. It was adapted from an original screenplay by Dardano Sacchetti to serve as a sequel to George A. Romero's '' Dawn of the Dead'' (1978), which was released ...
'' after
René Cardona Jr. stepped down. The shark was fed prior to filming as well as pumped with tranquilizers to keep it placid.
Death
Ramón Bravo died on 21 February 1998 by accident, because of an accidental
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
caused by an electric shock from his home in Isla Mujeres.
On 28 February 1998, in the presence of the then
President of Mexico
The president of Mexico (), officially the president of the United Mexican States (), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and ...
,
Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (; born 27 December 1951) is a Mexican economist and politician. He was the 61st president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Re ...
,
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jean-Michel Cousteau (born 6 May 1938) is a French oceanographic explorer, environmentalist, educator and film producer. The first son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, he is the father of Fabien Cousteau and Céline Cousteau.
Life and ca ...
and many local and State authorities, at the entrance to the underwater cave of the ''Sleeping Sharks'', located between
Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres, in
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 administrative divisions of Mexico, federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into municipalities of ...
, Mexico. Ramón's wife, María Vallejo and priest Eduardo Pérez deposited the ashes and, at the entrance, a
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...
plaque was placed in his honor at the wish of his dearest friends and many famous divers, which says:
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bravo, Ramon
1925 births
1998 deaths
Sportspeople from Coahuila
Mexican male freestyle swimmers
Olympic swimmers for Mexico
Swimmers at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Mexican scientists
Mexican ecologists
Oceanographers
Mexican male journalists
20th-century Mexican writers
20th-century Mexican male writers
Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Mexico
Competitors at the 1946 Central American and Caribbean Games
Competitors at the 1950 Central American and Caribbean Games
Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in swimming
20th-century Mexican journalists
20th-century Mexican sportsmen