Sea has always called him
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Ken Merryman
Scanlon's Jerry Eliason aboard the Heyboy while going out to get video footage of the wreck of the Pere Marquette 18 in August.
Scanlon's Jerry Eliason said he was just a boy when the "Sea Hunt" television series sparked his interest in shipwrecks.
The series only aired for four seasons, but Eliason watched reruns of Lloyd Bridges as former Navy diver Mike Nelson, and he bugged his parents for scuba diving lessons for years. He finally got his wish when he was 12.
"They hired a local diver to give me some training," said Eliason, who grew up in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. "So I got my first dive gear at age 12, and certified in my early 20s."
His first hunt for a "virgin" shipwreck - one never located before - was in 1981...
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