Jill Heinerth Explained

Jill Heinerth
Birth Place:Toronto, Canada
Occupation:Explorer, author, underwater photographer, public speaker, educator, cave diver
Spouse:Paul Heinerth,[1] Robert McClellan

Jill Heinerth (born 1965) is a Canadian cave diver, underwater explorer, writer, photographer and film-maker.[2] 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[3] and Ben's Vortex, about the disappearance of Ben McDaniel.

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.[4] In 2023 Heinerth was awarded a PhD, (hc) from Victoria University in the University of Toronto.[5]

Career

In 1991, Heinerth quit her office job and moved to the Cayman Islands to dive full-time, honing skills in underwater photography.[4] She then moved to Florida to work on cave diving, where she was mentored by documentary filmmaker Wes Skiles.[4] She collaborated with his Karst Productions, based in High Springs, Florida.[6]

In 1998, Heinerth was part of the team that made the first 3D map of an underwater cave.[7] Heinerth became the first person to dive the ice caves of Antarctica, penetrating further into an underwater cave system than any woman ever[3] In 2001, she was part of a team that explored ice caves of icebergs[8] 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.[9]

In 2015, Heinerth participated in exploring the numerous anchialine caves of Christmas Island.[10]

In 2016 Heinerth led an expedition that explored and surveyed the flooded Bell Island Mines at Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.[11]

Heinerth is a Fellow of The Explorers Club, and the inaugural Explorer-in-Residence of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

She consults on training programmes for diving agencies, publishes photojournalism in a range of magazines and speaks around the world.[4]

Heinerth has written opinion pieces and articles about exploration and climate change for global publications including the Los Angeles Times.[12]

In 2020, Heinerth spoke with the podcast This is Love about diving in ice caves in Antarctica.[13]

Jill Heinerth is a prolific public speaker and educator represented by Speaker's Spotlight agency.[14]

In 2020, Heinerth was interviewed on many radio, TV and podcasts programs including the NPR radio program Fresh Air.[15] [16]

In August 2022, Heinerth led a team of expeditionary technical divers who confirmed and photographed a lost, sunken WWII bomber at the bottom of Gander Lake in Newfoundland.[17]

Heinerth was a member of a Royal Canadian Geographical Society team that discovered the wreckage of the Quest, the polar exploration vessel of the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 on which Sir Ernest Shackleton died in 1922.The wreck was found in 390 metres of water on the seabed of the Labrador Sea roughly 80 km off Labrador's coast, sitting almost upright, and appearing to be broadly intact.[18]

Jill Heinerth is the subject of the award-winning feature documentary film Diving Into The Darkness, produced by Running Cloud Productions and directed by Nays Baghai. The 2024 film won the feature documentary award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. [19]

Personal life

Heinerth married cave diver Paul Heinerth in 1996; they later divorced.[20] In April 2007, she married her second husband, writer, photographer, and new media expert Robert McClellan,[21] with whom she lives in Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada.[22] Heinerth has described her hobbies as hiking, kayaking and cycling; "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."[4]

Works

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[3] [24] and Ben's Vortex.[25]

Jill hosted and shot underwater videography for the Under Thin Ice episode of on the CBC Television Network. Produced by GalaFilm of Montreal, Canada.

Awards

In 2012, Heinerth was named the "Sea Hero of the Year" by SCUBA Diving Magazine.[26]

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.[4] She won the OZTek Media Award in March 2013.[27] In November 2013, she was awarded the first ever Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.[2] In June 2016, Heinerth was named as the first Explorer-in-Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.[28]

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’.[29]

Later that year, on 7 March 2017, the Governor General of Canada announced that Jill Heinerth was to receive the Canadian Polar Medal.[30]

In March 2018 Jill Heinerth was awarded the Beneath The Sea Diver of the Year (Education) Award.[31]

On 18 August 2020 it was announced that Jill Heinerth would be inducted into the International SCUBA Diving Hall of Fame. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the induction will be delayed until 2021.[32]

In February 2021 Jill's Children's book The Aquanaut was selected by Dolly Parton as a Blue Ribbon Selection of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Jill Heinerth was named as the 2024 Honorary Ottawa Riverkeeper at the Riverkeeper's annual gala on 29 May, 2024. [33]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ice Island . Advanced Diver magazine . 2003 . 12 April 2016 . Jill Heinerth.
  2. Web site: Best of Q: Cave diver Jill Heinerth on fear management . Jian . Ghomeshi . cbc.ca . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140808104032/http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2014/03/27/jill-heinerth-cave-diver-best-of-q/ . 8 August 2014 .
  3. Web site: My Perfect Adventure: Jill Heinerth. Avital. Andrews. Outside Online. 14 December 2012.
  4. Web site: Jill Heinerth : OceanAGE Career Profile. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA). 29 March 2013.
  5. Web site: Deep-Sea Explorer Jill Heinerth to Receive First Honorary Doctorate » Victoria University . 2023-10-16 . vicu.utoronto.ca . en-CA.
  6. Web site: Deep Transmissions Armed with a revolutionary new tracking device, cave divers map threats to Florida's main water source . Mariah Media Network LLC. . Outside Online . 1 October 2003 . 12 April 2016 . Mark Schrope.
  7. Web site: Jill Heinerth Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration. Heather. Yundt. Canadian Geographic. 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20140808050550/http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/jf14/jill-heinerth-2013-ondaatje-medal-for-exploration-winner.asp. 8 August 2014. dmy-all.
  8. Kendrick, DF . Science of the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD): Water Quality, Hydrogeology, Biology and Psychology . In: Pollock NW, ed. Diving for Science 2009. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences 28th Symposium. Dauphin Island, AL . 2009 . usurped. https://archive.today/20130705014546/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/10114 . 5 July 2013 . 2016-01-02 .
  9. Web site: Explorers' film wins top honor . Tampa Bay Times . 13 November 2002 . 23 October 2022 . Jennifer Goldblatt.
  10. Iliffe T, Humphreys W . Christmas Islands Hidden Secret . 2016 . Advanced Diver Magazine . 2016-01-02 .
  11. Web site: Mine Quest: Diving Into Bell Island's Underwater Mines . HuffPost . en . 9 February 2016.
  12. Web site: Heinerth . Jill . Opinion: I am a diver who documents climate change in the Arctic. And I am running out of time . Los Angeles Times . 6 October 2019.
  13. Web site: May 27, 2020. Into the Ice. This is Love.
  14. Web site: Speaking . IntoThePlanet.
  15. Heinerth . Jill . Dave Davies . Cave Diver Risks All To Explore Places 'Where Nobody Has Ever Been' . 2020-10-02 . NPR . 2024-04-14.
  16. Web site: Jill Heinerth . 31 October 2019 .
  17. Web site: Divers confirm location of wreck of WW II airplane in Newfoundland lake. CBC Radio. Andrea. Bellemare. 6 September 2022.
  18. News: Wreck of Shackleton's ship Quest found, last link to 'heroic age of Antarctic exploration' . The Guardian . MacDiarmid . Campbell .
  19. Web site: Local Hero, Merlot Division . 15 February 2024 .
  20. Book: Heinerth . Jill . Into the planet: my life as a cave diver . 2019 . HarperCollins . New York . 9780062691569 . 90; 274 . Kindle.
  21. Web site: Jill Heinerth Loves The Places Where Her Friends Have Gone To Die . Filmcourage . 9 March 2012 . 12 April 2016.
  22. Web site: So I Married an Explorer .
  23. News: Harrigan . Stephen . 'In Oceans Deep' and 'Into the Planet' Review: No Strangers to the Abyss . 4 January 2020 . Wall Street Journal . 3 January 2020.
  24. 0979878993 . We are Water . Heinerth Productions, Inc. . 1 January 2013 . Heinerth, Jill (Actor, director, narrator, Host); McClellan, Robert (Producer) . DVD . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160320090420/http://www.intotheplanet.com/we-are-water-project/ . 20 March 2016 .
  25. 0979878985 . Ben's Vortex . Heinerth Productions, Inc. . 2012 . Jill Heinerth (Director) . DVD . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160320090420/http://www.intotheplanet.com/we-are-water-project/ . 20 March 2016 .
  26. Scuba Diving Magazine https://www.scubadiving.com/keywords/marine-conservation/currents-sea-hero-year-2012-jill-heinerth October 2012
  27. Rosemary E Lunn Tech talk: Tales of ‘Daring Do’ Xraymag, issue 54, May 2013, p.58
  28. Royal Canadian Geographical Society http://www.rcgs.org/about/honorary/explorer-in-residence.asp June 2016
  29. Rosemary E Lunn Jill Heinerth To Receive 2017 NOGI for ‘Sports & Education’ Deeperblue.com, 10 January 2017.
  30. Rosemary E Lunn Jill Heinerth To Receive Canadian Polar Medal X-Ray Magazine
  31. Rosemary E Lunn Bozanic, Burroughs, Hasson, Heinerth and HDSUSA honoured with Beneath The Sea Awards X-Ray Magazine
  32. ISDHF International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame’s milestone 20th Anniversary Induction
  33. Web site: Riverkeeper Gala raises $300K to help protect, improve Ottawa River – Ottawa Business Journal . 30 May 2024 .