Sea Hunt: The Diving Show That Shot Its Clearest Water at Silver Springs

When the script called for water you could see straight through, the crew came to Florida.

Sea Hunt ran in first-run syndication from 1958 to 1961, 155 episodes of Lloyd Bridges as Mike Nelson, a former Navy frogman working freelance as a diver. Most of the underwater photography was shot in California, at Marineland of the Pacific, Santa Catalina and Paradise Cove. The Florida work went to Silver Springs, Cypress Gardens and Tarpon Springs, where spring water gave the cameras a clarity the Pacific could not.

What It Started

Recreational scuba was brand new and the show reached more than a hundred syndicated markets. A generation of divers later said Sea Hunt was the reason they first strapped on a tank. Bridges took a crash course in scuba and used a stunt double in the early episodes, but by the end of the run he was doing all but the most dangerous work himself.

A historical marker at Silver Springs commemorates the filming, and the State Archives hold photographs of the shipwreck set the crew sank there for the cameras.