Website www.intotheplanet.com Name Jill Heinerth | Role Diver | |
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Occupation Cinematographer, explorer, cave diver Movies Water's Journey: The Hidden Rivers of Florida Books The Basics of Rebreather Diving: Beyond Scuba to Explore the Underwater World |
Scuba diver jill heinerth underwater video with aquatica agh4 camera housing and light motion
Jill Heinerth is a Canadian cave diver, underwater explorer, writer, photographer and film-maker. According to Outside Online, many consider her the best female underwater explorer in the world. She has made TV series for PBS, National Geographic Channel and the BBC, consulted on movies for directors including James Cameron, written several books and produced documentaries including We Are Water and Ben's Vortex, about the disappearance of Ben McDaniel.
Contents
- Scuba diver jill heinerth underwater video with aquatica agh4 camera housing and light motion
- Jill heinerth describes near death experience while cave diving
- Early life and education
- Career
- Personal life
- Bibliography
- Film
- Awards
- References

Jill heinerth describes near death experience while cave diving
Early life and education

As a child, Heinerth was inspired by Jacques Cousteau's television series. In 5th grade, she gave a Science Fair project about mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. She gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications Design at York University, and ran a small graphic design agency in Toronto while teaching scuba in Lake Huron's port of Tobermory in the evenings.
Career

In 1991, Heinerth sold her business and moved to the Cayman Islands to dive full-time, honing skills in underwater photography. She then moved to Florida to work on cave diving, where she was mentored by documentary filmmaker Wes Skiles. She collaborated with his Karst Productions, based in High Springs, Florida.

In 1998, Heinerth was part of the team that made the first 3D map of an underwater cave. Heinerth became the first person to dive the ice caves of Antarctica, penetrating further into an underwater cave system than any woman ever In 2001, she was part of a team that explored ice caves of icebergs. where she and her then husband Paul Heinerth "discovered wondrous life and magical vistas" and experienced the calving of an iceberg, documented in the film Ice Island.
In 2015, Heinerth participated in exploring the numerous anchialine caves of Christmas Island.
She consults on training programmes for diving agencies, publishes photojournalism in a range of magazines and speaks around the world.
Personal life
Heinerth was married to cave diver Paul Heinerth. As of 2012, her second husband is writer, photographer and new media expert Robert McClellan, with whom she lives in north Florida and on a small houseboat on the Humber River in Canada. Heinerth has described her hobbies as hiking, kayaking and gardening; "My favorite pastime is getting up at dawn and cycling to my local spring where a robust swim against the current of the Santa Fe River starts my day on the right track."
Bibliography
Film
She has produced TV series for PBS, National Geographic Channel, Discovery channel and the BBC, consulted on movies for directors including James Cameron. She has produced documentaries including We Are Water and Ben's Vortex.
Awards
Heinerth is a member of the Explorers Club, a fellow of the National Speleological Society, and she has been inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame. She won the OZTek Media Award in March 2013. In November 2013, she was awarded the first ever Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
In June 2016, Heinerth was named as the first Explorer-in-Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
In January 2017, the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences announced that Jill Heinerth was to become a 2017 AUAS Fellow by receiving an NOGI Award for ‘Sports & Education’.
Later that year, on 7 March 2017, the Governor General of Canada announced that Jill Heinerth was to receive the Canadian Polar Medal .