The Sea Hunters

Jim and fellow diver prepare to drop 150 feet down into the Baltic to dive the monitor Russalka. July 2005

Jim helps Mike Fletcher gear up for a dive on the Russian monitor Russalka off the coast of Estonia and Finland.

Jim gears up to dive the wreck of the Arctic exploration ship Fox in Querquertersuaq, Greenland, while filming an episode of The Sea Hunters. Jim, with Mike and Warren Fletcher, explored the ice-flattened remains of the tiny steamer, famous for its role in determining the fate of ill-fated Franklin expedition. Owned by Lady Jane Franklin, Fox, under the command of Francis Leopold McClintock surveyed the Canadian Arctic archipelago in 1857-1859 and returned with traces of the lost expedition, including the only written note from the lost explorers, which told of Franklin's death and the abandonment of his ships by the survivors.

The Vancouver Sun took this formal portrait of Jim as museum director and Sea Hunter when they named him one of BC’s most prominent citizens in 2004.

Jim prepares to dive with the Sea Hunters at the Kozaki Harbor site on Takashima Island, Japan, where archaeologists were excavating the remains of Khubilai Khan’s lost fleet from the Mongol invasion of 1281.

Jim works with local diver/historian Dave Gartshore while searching the waters of Lake Ontario near the old Picton Range for Avro Arrow test models fired over the lake by Nike rockets during the 1950s.

Jim stands next to the bow of the wrecked Peter Iredale at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Jim swims by America’s undersea “space station” Aquarius off the Florida Keys while filming a Sea Hunters episode in 2005.

The Sea Hunters visit New Jersey to search for the remains of the US Navy airship Akron, and follow the trail along New York's East River to the site of test dives of Julius Kroeh's Sub Marine Explorer. Jim and Mike examine a piece of light aluminum alloy girder from the wreck of the US Navy airship Akron, which crashed and sank into the Atlantic off New Jersey in April 1933. Only three men survived the crash, but another survivor was crew member John Lust, who remained behind in the hospital after a bad car crash. The Sea Hunters, working inside the Akron's hangar at Lakehurst, New Jersey, are interviewing Mr. Lust before they head out to see to try and find the lost dirigible's remains. Sea Hunter John Davis pores over the ship's records while Mr. Lust joins Mike and Jim in discussing the construction of Akron.

Jim stands next to the bow of the wrecked Peter Iredale at the mouth of the Columbia River.

The Sea Hunters joined the U.S. Coast Guard's National Motor Lifeboat School off Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River. Here Jim grins and braces for the next roll.

The Sea Hunters joined the U.S. Coast Guard's National Motor Lifeboat School off Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River. Here Jim grins and braces for the next roll.

Jim and fellow Sea Hunter Mike Fletcher interview Dr. Torao Mozai, the "father of underwater archaeology" in Japan, while filming at Takashima, site of the Mongol Invasion of 1281. In the early 1980s, Dr. Mozai and his team discovered the first traces of the invasion fleet, sent by Kublai Khan to subjugate Japan and lost to what Japanese legend calls a divine wind or "kamikaze" that destroyed the invading ships.

Jim takes a late-day view of Explorer. (Marc Pike, Open Road Productions)

Jim heads out to the dive site of the wreck of Fox in Greenland with Mike and Warren Fletcher.

The Sea Hunters investigate the wreck of HMS Doterel in Chile, Jan 2005. Here, Jim talks via dive radio to Mike Fletcher while The Sea Hunters explore the wreck of the British gunboat HMS Doterel, which exploded and sank off Punta Arenas, Chile in 1881. This recent (January 2005 adventure) was The Sea Hunter's southernmost adventure to date, at the tip of South America in the Straits of Magellan. It was also the first show filmed in the fifth season of The Sea Hunters.

Sea Hunter Jim poses in Punta Arenas harbor in the Straits of Magellan on Chile’s southern coast.

Jim sails around the southernmost tip of continental South America at Cape Froward in the Straits of Magellan.

Jim and the host of ShipwreckCentral.com, Christine Barker, prepare for a jet helicopter flight across the tip of Patagonia to hook up with The Sea Hunters at the start of season five.

In 2000, Jim participated in the St. Roch II Voyage of Rediscovery, an epic recreation of the Northwest Passage voyages of St. Roch, Canada's famous Arctic exploration vessel and centerpiece of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, where Jim has served as executive director since 1991. Not content with raising funds and profile for the voyage, Jim had to go along - adding a search for the wrecks of explorer Sir John Franklin's lost ships from his 1845-1848 expedition, a sonar mapping of the wreck of Maud, and a field reconnaissance of the passage. Here he is, in an Royal Canadian Mounted Police marine detachment uniform, after a landing off the shores of King William Island in search of an elusive wreck said to lie just off its shores and visible only from the air. While the trip was amazing and Jim enjoyed his time with RCMP on the voyage, alas, no trace of Franklin's ships were found on the voyage.

Jim and Dr. Willi Kramer, the German military's chief underwater archaeologist, discuss a dive on the WWI German cruiser Dresden with Sea Hunter Mike Fletcher as he explores the wreck off Chile's Isla Robinson Crusoe.

Jim takes a moment to relax at the stern of a dive boat with fellow Sea Hunter and Sea Hunters' producer John Davis while off the coast of Nova Scotia. John is a great friend who, along with Clive Cussler, selected Jim to be the host of The Sea Hunters. A former teacher, fisherman and now a veteran film producer, John previously produced the series Oceans of Mystery.

Jim poses on the deck of the tiny fishing boat Mary West as they pass through a field of icebergs while The Sea Hunters sail cross Greenland's Disko Bay.

Jim gears up to dive Russalka while Marc Pike films. It was hot, hot, hot on this trip! Over 30 degrees Celsius most days.

Monument to the lost sailors of the Russian monitor Russalka in Tallinn, Estonia.

Jim with Sea Hunters Mike and Warren Fletcher, pose on the banks of New York's East River at the site of the 1865-1866 test dives of Julius Kroehl's Sub Marine Explorer.