ANDY DEHART
Going for a swim in the Bahamas? Fun. Swimming there with sharks? Not so much. Unless you’re Andy Dehart, that is. A 2000 UNO graduate, Dehart boasts 20-plus years in animal husbandry at several major public aquariums throughout North America. He was part of the opening team as an aquarist at the Kingdom of the Seas Aquarium at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, worked for the National Aquarium in both Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and helped build and open Toronto’s Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. Today he’s vice president of animal husbandry at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science in Miami, Florida. But it’s his time with sharks that often piques interest. Dehart’s knowledge of sharks has led him to serve as Shark Advisor for the Discovery Channel, for which he’s been featured in seven Shark Week productions. He’s also appeared on the “Today Show,” “NBC Nightly News,” “Larry King Live,” “The O’Reilly Factor” and other shows. Sometimes, his knowledge comes firsthand. Like it did in 2007 when Dehart dipped into the Bahamanian waters to test a theory that sharks there were attacking boogie and surfboarders while mistaking them for prey. The sharks swam past him. And Dehart keeps making waves.