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By Jessie Moniz Hardy
Published Apr 22, 2014 at 8:00 am

Dylan Ward driving the Rigid Inflatable Boat with
veterinarian Neil Burnie in back on the “set” of ‘Ocean Vet’.

You’d think the most unpredictable thing about filming whales would be the whales. Bermudian Dylan Ward said actually, it’s the weather.

Mr Ward, 28, had the opportunity to act as second boat captain during the filming of new Bermuda television series ‘Ocean Vet’ starring veterinarian Neil Burnie.

“Decisions are based on a weather model that is three days out,” Mr Ward said. “As that time comes closer and closer you often realise that weather is not what you will be given.”

High winds and rough seas often kept the team land-based until the weather cleared.

‘Ocean Vet’ is co-produced by Andrew Smith and Dan Radford of the United Kingdom. Mr Smith also worked on popular documentary programme ‘Rod and Rucksack’. The first episode of ‘Ocean Vet’ will feature migrating humpback whales.

It was Mr Ward’s job to pilot a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) out to Challenger Banks while the rest of the crew travelled on Dr Burnie’s 36ft catamaran Bones. Once they sighted whales and started filming, the crew would get in the RIB and Mr Ward would pilot Bones.

Mr Ward said he grew up near (mostly in) Flatts inlet and got his pilots’ license a couple of years ago. Mr Ward studied biology in university, but currently works in maintenance.

A whale takes his curtain call during filming of ‘Ocean Vet’.

“I chose maintenance because it gives me more flexibility to go free diving, when I want to go,” he said.

When he heard about the possibility of a short term job on the set of ‘Ocean Vet’ he knew he had to jump on it. He said he found the work both challenging and rewarding.

“It is definitely tricky piloting boats around whales,” he said. “The first week we had producer Andrew Smith up on the tower on Bones, and we were trying to get the RIB into the camera frame, but there were pods of whales and we were trying to be a safe distance from them. As I was piloting I had to make sure I wasn’t accidentally getting into the shot. There was lots of stuff going on.”

During the filming he had two chances to get into the water with the whales.

“I got to dive down with one whale and another time there was a mother calf and escort,” he said. “I got to see the mother and calf in the water and that was incredible.”

He said it was pretty tricky to decide what was the most incredible thing he’d seen during filming.

“Getting to step back from it and see what these guys will do with the footage will be amazing,” he said. “In the last couple of days we have seen whales breech 360 degrees out of the water and mother and baby calves swimming around.”

His father, Jack Ward, is the former Director of Conservation Services.

“When I was growing up around Bermuda I had every ambition of doing the same thing,” Mr Ward said. “My first introduction to it (marine biology) was when my father was doing his Masters thesis on sea grass beds as a nursery for juvenile marine life. I was the little kid on the boat watching what he was doing. I wanted to do something in marine biology, but it has been hard to get work in that field in Bermuda.”

The film crew will be back in Bermuda to continue filming 11 more episodes for the television show this summer. Mr Ward will continue to help them.

He is not the only local Bermudian involved in the production of ‘Ocean Vet’. There is also Oscar Deuss, Andrew Kirkpatrick, William Tucker, and Choy Aming.