He was active in many areas of diving. For many years, Bergman was co-producer of Man Sea/San Francisco with Al Giddings. He was a long-time member of the Explorers Club and a Director of CEDAM. Bergman was an accomplished underwater photographer. He documented all of the beautiful dive destinations he visited. In addition, Bergman did underwater photography on some serious marine science and ocean technology studies. In 1964, Bergman was the underwater photographer during Dr. Perry Gilbert’s Tikehau Shark Expedition sponsored, in part, by the Office of Naval Research.
Combining his diving background with over 25 years of experience as owner of several successful travel agencies, Bergman created See & Sea, Inc. in San Francisco in 1965. He became President and rapidly built a reputation for top quality diving tours. See & Sea was the first and most successful travel service in the world catering exclusively to diving travelers. Every new location selected as a possible dive destination by See & Sea is thoroughly investigated and researched prior to adding it to the list of dive tours. The high standards of See & Sea set the standards for dive travel operators.
Carl Roessler had been introduced to Dewey Bergman by Paul Tzimoulis (who had been Roessler’s scuba diving instructor in Connecticut in 1957). Roessler went on one of Bergman’s diving tours to Cozumel in 1967. Bob Hollis was the Assistant Tour Leader on the trip. Roessler was organizing diving tours mostly from the New England area. He met and dove with Bob Croft, the gifted Navy breath-holding diver. In 1968, Roessler asked Dewey Bergman, Bob Hollis and Al Giddings to film Bob Croft’s world record breath-hold depth record down to 240 feet off Florida. The resulting movie, The Deep Challenge, launched Giddings’ very productive film making career.
Dewey Bergman received many honours for his work in diving: the NOGI Award Sports & Education from the Underwater Society of America (now presented by The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences)(1977); and many other awards.
Dewey Bergman passed away 1993.