The first time Gabby Shepard sank below the ocean’s surface and took a breath from a scuba tank, her world changed. “Everything melted away,” she says. “I was mesmerized. Just totally captivated. I felt like I was doing something that was defying humanity in some way, like I was a superhero able to breathe underwater. I just remember thinking, ‘I’m only going to do this.’”
At the time, the California native was working in the film and television industry and on what she calls a “much-needed self-care trip to the Dominican Republic.” Now, just three years after her first dive, Shepard’s life revolves around the ocean. She leads scuba diving trips to places like Belize, Mexico, and the Caribbean. And through the content she shares on her Instagram account @BlackGirlBlueWorld, Shepard inspires others to discover and protect what lies beneath the surface of the sea.
In conservation, as in everything, Shepard leads by example. In April, she participated in a PADI Dive Against Debris in La Jolla, California, joining an underwater citizen science movement. The program’s goal is to survey marine debris, leveraging real-world observations to help scientists and others working on conservation efforts.
”It was so nice to engage with the ocean in different ways,” Shepard says of her experience in La Jolla. “We actually didn’t find much trash on our dive, which is a good thing. But there are 8 million tons of garbage out there, and I’m hoping the video we made that day helps guide people through the process of collecting it.”
The Ocean for All
Shepard grew up in Sacramento, California, and says that while she was always in proximity to the coast, she never thought scuba diving was an option. “My friends weren’t going diving. None of my family members had been going diving. It just wasn’t a part of my community.”
After her experience diving in the Dominican Republic, she realized scuba diving was more accessible than she had thought. “For some reason, in my head, scuba diving cost $5,000, because no one ever told me how much it costs. But you can do a ‘discover dive’ for $100,” Shepard says. “It’s not a cheap sport, but it is an accessible one if you save and make it a priority.”
Still, Shepard says she recognizes that diving, like so many things that feed the soul, is a hobby. “You have to make time for play,” she says. “If you’re not intentional about taking care of yourself and whatever feeds you, you’re not going to do it.” The ocean feeds her.
Even before she was a scuba diver, Shepard found peace in the sea. She spent a year in Rosarito, Mexico, healing from an undiagnosed illness. Every morning, she’d walk on the sand next to lapping waves. “I don’t know how to explain it,” she says, “but I know being near the ocean is what healed me in some indirect chain of events.”
Shepard believes everyone can benefit from the ocean’s healing properties. “Even just being near it, you have to be still. You have to be quiet,” she says. “I think there’s something really powerful in just focusing on the ocean and listening to the sounds and fusing your body to it.”
World Ocean Day
When Shepard was fully recovered from her illness, and after discovering scuba diving, she started posting photos and video footage to her Instagram account. “In the beginning, I was posting videos because I was shocked that I had not seen the story of the ocean through scuba diving before. Really the story of connecting as a human to the underwater world.”
She quickly gained a following, notably encouraging others from the Black community to take up diving. “It started with people in my family and other Black people not knowing that it was something that they could do until they saw me doing it,” she says. “I don’t know what possessed me to scuba dive before I saw anybody that looks like me doing it, but I’m glad that I can open the door for some people.”
Not surprisingly, Shepard is looking forward to World Ocean Day on June 8. “It’s inspiring to see the full spectrum of celebration on World Ocean Day—from scientists to everyday people who just love the water,” she says. “I’m looking forward to seeing the different ways people speak about the underwater world. We all have a place in the conversation. The day gives us all a chance to express our relationship with the ocean and meet one another wherever we are on our journey in restoring its health.”
When it comes to protecting the ocean, plenty of critical environmental and climate issues are at stake. And you might hear about them on World Ocean Day. But there’s also this: As Shepard says, “There’s so much beauty down there—just unbelievable beauty.”
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