The Daredevils

Valerie just sent me this lovely pic of our Bulls she took in March and a short post reminds me that she and Ron have been part of the underwater world for more than 40 years.

They are my Heroes and we've been best friends forever, and ever since 2002 when we sat down on the upper deck of Pelagian to discuss the first draft of the Fiji Project, they've been enthusiastic mentors of Shark Reef Marine Reserve and regularly pop in to gauge its progress and discuss its future direction - and of course, to have a great time with the Sharks!

They are the kindest and most generous people ever, always willing to share their limitless experience and unique insights garnered from a lifetime of interacting and trying to protect Sharks - and yet, nobody could be more modest, humble and self-effacing, and quite unaware of the huge influence they have had in touching the lives of so many, yours truly included. To me, that is the ultimate sign of true greatness.

And whenever you should marvel at some "feat" by one of the Shark people out there, keep in mind this: in all likelihood, Ron and Val have already done the very same thing decennia ago!
Have a look below and you'll understand what I mean - the difference being that back then, there was no such thing as hi-tech, foolproof gear and safety divers ensuring quasi total protection, and no World Wide Web and YouTube enabling an instant replay for the masses at large. It was adventure, exploration and daring pure and simple, sometimes reckless, always intriguing - but always springing from a deep knowledge, unbridled curiosity and deep love for the Blue Wilderness.

Truly, nobody, and I really mean: NOBODY out there comes even close!

And yet, do you really know who they are?

Here's a "curriculum" from one of the websites.
Yes it's long - but so are their life and the list of their achievements!
It doesn't even mention all of their successes in Conservation, be it the protection of Great Whites, Southern Right Whales and Grey Nurses in Australia or the countless other initiatives where they act as vocal mentors and supporters, e.g. in Komodo or with us in Fiji.

OK, enough ..... Check this out and be amazed!

Ron Taylor was born in March 1934 and Valerie in November 1935. They married in December 1963. Ron began his diving in 1952, Valerie a few years later in 1956.

Like most others at the time, Ron was interested in spearfishing and conservation was not an active movement in Australia until the late 1960's. Ron Taylor had another interest, underwater photography.

He spent almost as much time with his cameras as he did with a spear gun. In 1960 Valerie began spear fishing, eventually winning several Australian championships for ladies in both spear fishing and scuba.

Ron's first award for photography came in 1962, from Encyclopedia Britannica, for a news film titled, Playing With Sharks. Ron Taylor's introductory underwater 16mm film, Shark Hunters, was filmed with diving partner Ben Cropp and showed the first underwater scenes of Grey Nurse sharks and a search for a shark repellent. It was an enormous hit.

Ron received the Underwater Society of America award, the NOGI statuette for Education and Sports, in 1966.
In 1965 Ron won the World Spear fishing Championship held in Tahiti, the first and only Australian to do so. It came after winning the Australian championship for four years in succession at a time when competition was keenest.

By 1966 they had realized that they could capture the underwater world on film and cause it no harm.

The Taylors then began winning honours for their films. While Ron shoots film and video, Valerie concentrates on stills. Over the years the Taylors have produced and worked on numerous feature films and TV documentaries. Barrier Reef, Taylor 's Inner Space and Blue Wilderness were all television series made by the Taylor 's. Blue Water White Death, Jaws, Orca, The Blue Lagoon, Return to the Blue Lagoon, Honeymoon in Vegas are some of the feature film they were involved in. Wild,Wild World of Animals included Taylor Shark sequences; TV specials include Operation Shark Bite; The Wreck of the Yongala; Sea Lovers; In the Realm of the Shark; The Rescue, a Disney feature; In the Footsteps of Mawson; Blue Wilderness; Shadow over the Reef; Mysteries of the Jungle Sea; the tiger shark sequences in The Island Of Dr Moreau. They concentrated on working with sharks because the footage sold well, and they had to make a living.

In 1967 (on the Belgian Expedition) Ron devised an idea of a diver wearing a full length chain-mail suit over a wet suit as possible protection against shark bite. It was more than a decade before the suit was actually made and tested. The result appeared as a National Geographic Magazine cover picture. Although the idea worked well, it was not financially practical, nor necessary, for the average diver.

In 1967 the Taylor's accompanied the Belgian Scientific Expedition to the Great Barrier Reef as advisors and underwater cinematographers, for a period of six months. They worked between Lady Musgrave Island and Lizard Island. It was the first major scientific expedition filming underwater in Australia, and in 35mm. Ron had began filming on this expedition with his own Eclair 16/35 mm movie camera, in a housing he had recently constructed.

In 1969 the Taylors formed their company, Ron Taylor Film Productions Pty Limited. In the same year they co-filmed the feature film, Blue Water, White Death (a Must-Buy!!!) - which was 'an extremely exciting adventure' swimming with hundreds of sharks in bottomless water in the Indian Ocean. Ron and Valerie appeared as themselves being two of the four main characters along with Stan Waterman and Peter Gimbel in this feature length documentary. Filmed in Techniscope which is half-frame 35mm later 'blown-up' to Cinemascope for the release prints. They were responsible for bringing this film crew to South Australia to search and film the great white shark when efforts to find a White shark failed in South African waters and the film was without an ending. They got such an ending in Australia - the film was a hit pre-Jaws.

In 1969 Valerie began underwater stills photography.
Ron built the underwater housings for her cameras which were, at the time, far in advance of anything available in stores. With her art experience Valerie quickly become one of the world's top female underwater photographers, a position she holds to this day.

During 1970-71, they did the 2nd unit underwater filming and directing for the 39 episode Australian TV series Barrier Reef for the same company with Lee Robinson that had success with "Skippy - The Bush Kangaroo".

In 1972-73 they produced Taylor's Inner Space, a series of 13 TV films, showing their encounters with the marine life of Australia and The Coral Sea. These films were sold throughout the world with considerable success.

Meanwhile Valerie's stills had featured in other leading international book publications, Readers Digest, Stern, Life. Valerie was contracted to shoot stills in the Virgin Islands for Time-Life's American Wilderness series of books, and had a major cover and feature in National Geographic with a Great Barrier Reef story obtained after a year of constant work.

During 1974 with Rodney Fox they successfully did the live shark action underwater sequences in Australia for the first Jaws movie.
(Check here - the "small person" was a professional jockey (!) who got a crash course in diving by the Taylors before being dumped into that flimsy and completely inadequate cage!)

Ron and Valerie have since done the underwater filming on many features and documentaries, such as "Orca," and The Blue Lagoon starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins in Fiji November 1979. Both the Taylors have won numerous awards for their underwater photography and videography.

In 1979 Ron finally had his idea of a suit of chain mail made in the USA.
Valerie had to wear it when it was found the suit was too small for Ron.
Another television special features Valerie testing the effectiveness of the suit against shark bite, was titled "Operation Shark Bite."

In 1981 while on a dive trip the Taylor's discovered mining claims on several Coral Sea Islands. They brought this to the attention of the Federal Government and saved these remote bird breeding islands from what would have been disastrous for hundreds of thousands of birds and turtles. Valerie was honored in 1981 by the Underwater Society of America where she received the NOGI award for Arts, and joined Ron as the first husband and wife team to be awarded a NOGI.

1982 saw the release of Wreck of the Yongala, a 47 minute TV film, showcasing what was then the most spectacular of all shipwrecks in shallow water (less than 33 meters deep). The film was instrumental in having the Yongala (and its marine life) made a protected area from fishing.

Also in 1982 the Taylor's lobbied directly and by the media both the Queensland Government and National Parks to make the Potato Cod of Cormorant Pass near Lizard Island known today as The Cod Hole protected.

Valerie has been bitten twice and nipped once by sharks, without permanent injury, she considers such encounters as part of the lifestyle. Three times in 30 years is 'not too bad under the circumstances'.

Four months of 1982 was spent in the Persian-Arabian Gulf, where the Taylors filmed the underwater scenes for six educational films featuring marine life that existed before it was later largely destroyed in the war. On the 4th October 1986, Valerie was in Holland where she was appointed Rider of the Order of the Golden Ark, by his Royal Highness, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. This award was for work in marine conservation.

Later in Sweden she finalized the picture selection for a coffee table book, The Realm of the Shark, a biographical account of their professional lives between the 1950's, until the 1990's. In January 1991, they went to Antarctica. Ron later produced a one hour film In the Footsteps of Mawson. In April that year, they joined Jaws author Peter Benchley, and Stan Waterman, filming once again white Sharks, but in Western Australia. This TV special documented the decline of the species world wide. Twice during 1991, Valerie Taylor was a guest of Jean Michel Cousteau, first on board their boat Alcyone during the filming of their special on white sharks and later when Valerie swam with spotted dolphins in the wild. The Taylors supplied some of their pictures to help illustrate the Cousteau coffee table book Great White Shark.

In January 1992, they returned to South Africa for filming on the National Geographic Blue Wilderness series. This time they tested an electronic shark repelling barrier, and also inadvertently became the first people to film white pointer sharks underwater without a cage, a necessity when the arranged cage was lost in a storm.
Shadow over the Reef, an adventure diving with giant whale Sharks was filmed at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia in 1993. This film was instrumental in preventing the test drilling for oil inside the Ningaloo marine park.

In February 1996, Ron shot an entire white shark documentary protected only by a Shark Pod repeller.

In April 1997 Valerie won the prestigious American Nature Photographer of the year award for her stunning photograph of a whale shark swimming with mouth open alongside her nephew Jono Heighes at Ningaloo Marine Park. The award sponsored by The American Press Club. Valerie, is also an accomplished artist, a talent that set her off on her first career as a comic strip artist with The Silver Jacket.

The Taylor's documentary film, Shark Pod was also completed in 1997, featuring their successfully trials with the electronic device (invented in South Africa by the Natal Sharks Board) against White pointer, Tiger, Great hammerhead and other shark species. The Shark Pod film received The Jury Award at the Antibes Underwater Festival, France, a high honor and judged by their peers.

After over 50 years in the "business," Ron and Valerie's fame keeps rising.

The Taylor's latest series of three TV films In the Shadow of the Shark is the story of their diving lives. It has been sold to Channel Seven in Australia and to more than 100 countries. Ron and Valerie have also authored three coffee book tomes, The Underwater World of Ron and Valerie Taylor, The Realm of the Shark, and Blue Wilderness (which won the 1998 Gold Palm Award for images at the 25th World Festival of Underwater pictures in Antibes France) and Valerie has also been working on her second children's book entitled, The Mermaid Who Loved Sharks.

In 1997, Valerie was awarded the American Nature Photographer of Year. The following year, she received the Golden Palm Award at Antibes, France, and in 2000, she became an inaugural Member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame. Valerie was also honored with two distinguished National titles - the senior Australian Achiever of the year 2002, the country's second highest national award and the Centenary Medal. She was also knighted by Prince Bernhard at the Palace in Holland for her work in the field of conservation. In 2003 Ron became a Member in the Order of Australia.

Valerie and Ron have been honored by the Wild Life Conservation Society of Australia for their work in conservation and at a ceremony in Parliament House NSW, Valerie Taylor was also made the Patron of the National Parks Association of NSW, Australia.

2002 Pelagian Voyage of Discovery, with Ron & Val, Stan Waterman, Bob & Dinah Halstead, Douglas D. Seifert, Chip & Susan Scarlett, Capt. Thomas Ridenour and Lam

Ron and Valerie on CNN!

From CNN Asia Pacific.

SHARK CONSERVATIONISTS RON AND VALERIE TAYLOR TAKE ANNA COREN DIVING ON CNN’S TALK ASIA

Airtimes: Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore and Taipei Wednesday, September 8 at 1930 Thursday, September 9 at 1130 Saturday, September 11 at 1900 Sunday, September 12 at 0330 & 1630 Monday, September 13 at 0230 Bangkok and Jakarta Wednesday, September 8 at 1830 Thursday, September 9 at 1030 Saturday, September 11 at 1800 Sunday, September 12 at 0230 & 1530 Monday, September 13 at 0130 This week's TALK ASIA travels to Sydney as host Anna Coren dives into the underwater world of renowned shark conservationists Ron and Valerie Taylor, a couple who have spent a lifetime working to show the public the real creature that they say is often misunderstood . They explain their fascination with the ancient predators, discuss their role in the hit film ‘Jaws' and analyse the increasing number of shark attacks in Australia. For the past five decades, this pair of conservationists has tried to demystify the terrifying perception of sharks by documenting their real behaviour. As filmmakers they have won multiple awards for their work, notably as the first people to film great white sharks outside of the safety of a dive cage. Ron says that he is fully aware of the risks involved: "There's always an element of danger because you are never ever 100% certain of what they are going to do, even the harmless ones. It's possible for them to make a mistake and have a little nibble or bite. But we know that they're not interested in eating us. If they do make a bite, it's accidental." Ron and Valerie were once spearfishing champions but traded their spears for cameras. "I now do my shooting with my camera and it was a great sense of achievement to capture a beautiful sequence of sharks or fish or manta rays with my camera, so I'm fulfilling my hunting instinct with a camera," Ron says. Valerie explains the distinctive features that continue to draw her to sharks: "I love the excitement of working with them. The shark is a species. I respect them and admire them. I wouldn't say that I actually love them although I have met a few that are very loving. Real sweethearts. The big tiger sharks that come up to you all friendly and nice. And you've got to like them. You really do." Their expertise bought Steven Spielberg calling when he needed help with his blockbuster ‘Jaws', but the couple were dismayed when the movie stoked public fear of sharks. "We thought it was just going to be a B-grade Hollywood movie that wouldn't get much exposure," Ron says. Valerie adds: "It was a big surprise to all of us the way that people reacted after seeing the film. After Alfred Hitchcock's ‘The Birds', they didn't get terrified of birds and nobody expected to see a gorilla on the Empire State Building but they expected to see the big shark." The Taylors, now both in their seventies, still put on their diving suits and carry their own cameras. Valerie tells Anna why she feels more comfortable in the water: "It's actually easier to dive at my age than it is to walk. I get into the water and I'm 25. Up here I'm 75." The Taylors' interview with TALK ASIA will be available online at www.cnn.com/talkasia after the first airing.

Ron and Val's Marine Park!

Gosh I've totally missed this one!

Thanks Sam!

Nobody deserves this more!
And great news for the GWS there!

Neptune Islands Group (Ron and Valerie Taylor) Marine Park

Date posted: 29 November 2012

The Neptune Islands Group Marine Park on South Australia’s West Coast will be renamed in honour of pioneering Australian conservationists and film makers Ron and Valerie Taylor.

SA Premier Jay Weatherill announced this week that the park will now be named the Neptune Islands Group (Ron and Valerie Taylor) Marine Park to signify their close association with region for almost 50 years and enormous contribution to marine conservation.

Ron and Valerie Taylor were once champion spear fishers, who went on to become pioneering underwater film-makers and photographers and have worked to support conservation of the marine environment for nearly 50 years.  

The Taylors became known worldwide for their spectacular action sequences with sharks and divers, and their beautiful still shots. Their work included significant vision shot in South Australia, filming here for television and films, especially focusing on great white sharks, Australian sea lions and other marine wildlife.

They have produced 20 documentaries and shoot underwater scenes for seven television series and 19 feature films, including Jaws and Jaws 2 After more than 40 years, Valerie continues to be known as one of the world’s leading underwater stills photographers.

Thanks to their long-standing fascination and experience with sharks, the Taylors captured some of the first underwater film of great whites and also became the first people in the world to film the huge fish without the protection of a cage. This love of great whites has meant that the sea around South Australia’s wild Neptune Islands have long been a precious place for the Taylors.

Their films have been shown around the world to educate people about the beauty and importance of our remarkable marine environment.

Ron Taylor died on 10 September 2012 and will long be remembered for his incredible contribution to underwater filming and for his love of the marine environment.

Valerie continues their work and advocacy.

The renaming of the Neptune Islands Group (Ron and Valerie Taylor) Marine Park is fitting recognition of their globally significant achievements.

Ron Taylor - a Tribute.

Happier times; Ron (standing, left) with Valerie, Douglas David Siefert in yum-yum-yellow and friends, PNG 2003 - please click for detail

As we mourn his passing, we must celebrate Ron's amazing life.

Douglas David Seifert has written this tribute.

Over the past decade or so, Doug has been one of Ron and Valerie's closest friend with whom he has undertaken countless dive expeditions to the four corners of the Oceans. As Ron became severely ill two years ago, Doug and Emily have resolved to make Australia the principal turntable for their travels, in order to find time to go and visit, extend  counsel and comfort, and simply be there, as only true friends will do. As we speak, they are with Valerie in Sydney.

For that, they have my ever lasting gratitude and respect - thank you so much!

Ronald Josiah Taylor (1934 – 2012)

A Tribute

© 2012 by Douglas David Seifert World Editor, DIVE Magazine

Ron Taylor, Australian icon of ocean exploration, scuba diving pioneer and innovator, visionary underwater filmmaker and marine conservationist, left this world behind early Sunday morning as he made the ultimate plunge into the eternal sea of night.

In 2003, the Order of Australia was awarded to Ron Taylor “For service to conservation and the environment through marine cinematography and photography, by raising awareness of endangered and potentially extinct marine species, and by contributing to the declaration of species and habitat protection.”
Born in 1934, appropriately under the star sign of Pisces the fish, Ron first submerged into the seas off Botany Bay, Sydney in 1951, when he found a mask someone had lost at the Brighton Le Sands meshed baths. “The underwater world became clear and I was hooked,” as he confided.

At first, he was a breath-hold skin diver, eventually becoming proficient as an underwater hunter with a speargun from 1953 forward.
At this time, he was employed as a photo engraver in Castlereagh Street, Sydney.In 1955, Ron built his first underwater breathing apparatus from parts purchased from a World War Two surplus shop, based upon an oxygen demand regulator used in high flying aircraft, along with flexible gas mask twin hoses; a fire extinguisher bottle was used for the air supply tank and compressed air obtained from a local engineering firm. The creation worked but was limited due to the small volume of air it could carry for the very short duration scuba dives. Eventually, manufactured scuba equipment made its way to Australian shores and Ron was able to spend greater amounts of time exploring the underwater world.

 In 1956, he became a member of the St. George Sea Dragons Spearfishing Club in Sydney and ultimately won four consecutive Australian National spearfishing championships between 1962 and 1965. He reached the apex of the sport in 1965 when he represented Australia at the World Spearfishing Competition held in Tahiti, French Polynesia, and took the top honor as the World Spearfishing Champion.

Over time, competitive spearfishing began to lose its appeal to Ron, because in addition to joining the St. George Spearfishing Club in 1956, he had also discovered the satisfactions of hunting sea life for the camera.
He was lent a 16mm Bell and Howell movie camera and built his own underwater housing for it from Perspex, a harbinger of the dozens of Taylor-made, custom-built underwater housings he would construct for all of his cameras over the next fifty years. The film length for that original camera was 50 feet, which would run for 80 seconds in total, but due to limitations of the spring winding mechanism, the maximum the camera would run was 25 seconds before shutting down. Ron learned early on to be very selective in his choice of subject and in camera technique. It was at this time, Ron also became aware that non-divers – also known as the rest of the world – were keenly interested in sharks and he began to specialize in photographing sharks for the camera.

In 1960, Ron bought his own Bolex camera, built another housing and began making films for theatrical release.
He also attended the Heron Island Dive Festival where a beautiful blonde skin diver named Valerie Heighes caught his eye. She had won the Miss Heron Island competition and he convinced her to model underwater for his camera, the beginning of a collaboration of filmmaker Ron and on-camera personality Valerie that would endure as a tried and true formula for the next fifty-two years.

By 1962, Ron’s first film, Playing With Sharks was released in cinemas by Movietone News.
The film was followed by Shark Hunters, shot in black and white, and sold to Australian and American television, cementing his reputation as a top-notch underwater filmmaker with a penchant for capturing sharks on film. In December of 1963, he and Valerie married and the following month, Ron won his third Australian National Spearfishing Championship at Kangaroo Island, South Australia. His film Skindiving Paradise was commissioned and released by the Queensland Government Tourist Board.

 In 1965, Ron Taylor filmed the underwater sequences for Revenge of a Shark Victim, a 16mm documentary for TCN9 television.
In the process of filming, Ron became the first man in the world to film a great white shark underwater and the first man to photograph a great white shark underwater without the use of an anti-shark cage. The resulting image, taken from a single still frame of that film, has been seen the world over for nearly forty years as the embodiment of the fearsome great white shark, a triangle of pointed snout, vast, open, outstretched jaws framed with triangular pointed teeth and featureless, jet black eyes. This iconic image was captured a decade before the movie Jaws gave movie-goers and swimmers a second thought.

 The year also saw the release of Surf Scene a diving and surfing documentary that played on a festival circuit as the newlywed Taylors barnstormed around coastal Queensland and New South Wales, Australia, four walling a town with posters promoting the film’s showings where the collected admissions paid for gasoline and food and film stock as the Taylors tried to make a career out of filmmaking and following their passion for the sea.

At the same time, Australia’s premiere underwater hunter became completely and irrevocably disenchanted with competitive spearfishing and gave up the sport completely, though he remained a highly skilled spearfisherman the rest of his days but took only enough to put upon the table fish enough to feed himself and his wife, with no waste.

In 1969, American department-store heir and filmmaker Peter Gimbel hired the Taylors take part in the production of Blue Water, White Death, a milestone cinema verite documentary that lived up to its subtitle: “The Hunt for the Great White Shark”. 
Valerie was employed as a safety diver and on-camera talent; Ron as cameraman. On this six month odyssey, the Taylors, working with Gimbel and cinematographer Stanton Waterman travelled around the Indian Ocean on a chartered whale catcher, from Durban, South Africa, and encountered vast schools of oceanic whitetip sharks feeding upon the carcasses of sperm whales killed by the then-active South African whaling industry. They filmed the shark aggregation at night and they filmed it most memorably by leaving the safety of anti-shark cages. The footage remains, to this day, the most dramatic underwater shark footage ever seen. The producer’s hope was a great white shark would appear at the whale carcass but the virually mythological shark remained elusive, so the production moved up the east coast to Mozambique, to the Comoros and to Sri Lanka, having great adventures along the way, providing a lively travelogue, but not meeting their objective. Eventually, after a hiatus, and at Ron Taylor’s suggestion, the production moved to South Australia where they finally found the great white shark. The film broke all box office records for a documentary film and was second grossing film of the year after only Love Story. The film was a lost classic for decades following Gimbel’s death until the original print was found and re-mastered and re-released in theatres and on DVD in 2007.

Following the worldwide success of Blue Water, White Death, in 1970 and 1971, the Taylors embarked upon filming the 39 episode television series Barrier Reef and the following year, their own television documentary series, Taylor’s Inner Space, which consisted of 13 half hour episodes filmed around Australia.



Their work in Blue Water, White Death attracted the attention of Hollywood and in 1974, Ron and Valerie were promptly hired to shoot the live action great white shark sequences for Jaws.



Other film work for Hollywood features followed, with Ron in great demand for original shark footage for Orca, Gallipoli, The Last Wave and all the underwater photographic work for The Blue Lagoon, starring Brooke Shields and Chris Atkins, as well as numerous television works such as pieces for National Geographic, Wild, Wild World of Animals TV series, resulting in specials and features such as Sharks, Silent Hunters of the Deep and Operation Shark Bite.

 During this time, Ron’s innovations into the world of experimentation with sharks included the development of a revolutionary, stainless steel, chain-mail inspired, anti-shark suit, as featured in the May, 1981 cover story of National Geographic Magazine.
 In the 1980’s, Ron Taylor’s productions of The Wreck of the Yongala and The Great Barrier Reef, both educated viewers about Australia’s irreplaceable underwater heritage concerning the Yongala, Australia’s most dynamic wreck dive and the Cod Hole, a sanctuary for the large and charismatic giant grouper called Potato Cod that could (and thanks to the Taylor’s efforts still can be) found only at one specific location on the Great Barrier Reef. These films, in addition to intense lobbying at great personal cost (threats and denouncement by fishermen and politicians) by Ron and Valerie Taylor, led public opinion towards the then-new concept of marine conservation and forced reluctant Queensland politicians to protect Australia’s unique marine heritage.

 Ron Taylor’s footage and presentation of marine life in Australian waters has been instrumental in allowing the Australian public to see and appreciate and ultimately to protect their rare and precious marine legacy and to demonstrate why animals such as the grey nurse shark and the Australian sea lion need be legally and morally protected against imminent extinction.

 Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ron Taylor worked on both Hollywood feature films, such as The Year of Living Dangerously, Honeymoon in Las Vegas, Return to the Blue Lagoon and The Island of Dr Moreau while continuing to make conservation-conscious, educational awareness focused wildlife features such as In the Realm of the Shark, Shadow Over the Reef and Shark Pod.
At the same time, Ron and Valerie themselves became the focus of documentaries made about their lives in the sea, their contributions to scuba diving, exploration and conservation in the features The Sea Lovers and In The Shadow of the Shark.

 In 2000, the Taylors were inducted into the International Divers Hall of Fame ceremony held in Grand Cayman.
The Taylors have jointly been awarded with the Australian Geographic Society Lifetime of Conservation Award and the Australian Cinematographers Society Hall of Fame, among their numerous honors. The years 2000 – 2011 were filled with dozens of scuba diving expeditions where Ron filmed some of the rarest and most dramatic creatures of the sea: Sperm Whales off the Azores Islands of the North Atlantic, Blue Whales off Indonesia; Great Hammerhead Sharks and Tiger Sharks in the Bahamas; the myriad of strange and often unidentified creatures of the shallow reef and sand slopes of Indonesia, among others.

Ron is survived by his loving wife and collaborator of over fifty years, Valerie.
His legacy is an awareness and appreciation of the ocean and its inhabitants unknown in Australia and throughout the rest of the civilized world fifty years ago. His story, of the journey from an unsurpassed marine hunter to a passionate conservationist putting himself on the line has led the way to a renaissance in thinking and understanding for three generations to the current state of conservation awareness in Australia so admired around the world.

Ron Taylor has inspired every major underwater image maker and cinematographer working today and will be admired not only for his flawless technical ability as a filmmaker, but for the quiet, unassuming, grace of a gentle man working with subtle dedication to make the underwater world a better place and a lasting environment for the next generation and generations to follow.
There has never been a better friend or dive buddy, a more patient listener or down to earth conveyer of underwater exploration.

Also posted on Wetpixel.

Please also read the eulogies by David Diley, Alex the Sharkman, Richard Theiss and Patric Douglas
Thank you.

Playing with Sharks!

Source - and here - and here - click for detail!

 

Hah - watch this.

And here she is on Shark Reef in all her glorious pinkness, a couple of days later - watch in 1080 and full screen.

Of course she did stand out like a sore thumb. 

And of course she did catch the attention of our big, bold and very dominant Shark Icon Tip. Talk about being given a haircut - and then watch how her nephew Jono barely avoided smacking her with his heavy video housing on top of it! 

But of course Valerie would have it no other way!

Anyway, it has been loads of fun.

Valerie, and Ron have been our best friends literally forever, and every visit is always a great joy and an honor, too - and having been chosen to be featured in her movie, doubly so.

And now the whole big shebang has been completed - and apparently it is great, to the point that is has been selected to screen at the prestigious Sundance Festival. Considering the mess in the USA, I expect the event to be largely virtual, and that one will be able to watch the movie online, possibly even outside of the US - so there.

And if not, make sure you don't miss it.

Valerie is one of the true diving Legends, and then some - and what makes this movie so unique is that much of her adventurous, passionate and fascinating life has actually happened on camera. And now the public will be able to actually witness it, which could not have come soon enough - especially when compared to the exploits of today's forgettable self promoting Shark charlatans and media whores!

So thank you to Producer Bettina and Director Sally - this is really very much appreciated.

But I'm digressing as always.

Enjoy Valerie's movie!

Must Buy!

I did not realize it then - but that red cruise ship sinking in Antarctica on November 23 had previously been the Lindblad Explorer.

That's the ship where I first met Ron and Valerie Taylor 30 years ago.
There was Bengt Danielsson from the Kon Tiki, big Mike McDowell was the Cruise Director, Jeremiah Sullivan was in charge of diving and Ron would take down a fat american lady to dive on (!) the anchor chain, where she would spend a grand total of 20 minutes happily snapping away at passing fish. She had just bought herself a new underwater housing and was complaining that the strobe, a brand-new, state-of-the-art Oceanic 2001, wasn't working.
Ron, then at the very top of his game, smiled his ever patient, humble smile and asked: "Did you switch it on?"
Of course she hadn't.

I adored Ron. Of course, like everybody else, I fell in love with Valerie.
I did my first wreck dive on the Coolidge, barely escaped a tribal war in Kiriwina, bought a trolling lure on Tikopia, got stitched up by a sword seller in Suva and later harrassed by the gay manager of Fiji's Mana Island Resort.
A memorable trip. Still beats me why I ever went back to Fiji.

Valerie then cooked me the first of her delicious dinners in their lovely home in Sydney (the last one being when she and Brenda Adkison torched my kitchen in Pacific Harbour) and we've been best friends ever since. They are the most wonderful, humble, loving people ever.
Ron and Val have been involved in the Fiji Shark Project ever since we discussed its outline on the back deck of Pelagian during the 2002 Voyage of Discovery, one of many memorable expeditions we've since done together.
I owe them my first lessons in underwater photography ("get close") and videography ("aim and press the red button"), thousands of insights into shark behaviour ("tiger sharks are sweet") and our very best marketing endorsement.


But above all, I owe them my first introduction to the wonderful world of the Shark.
Their epic movie "Blue Water White Death" showcases some of the most dramatic, jaw-dropping shark footage ever filmed, never to be repeated again. It has been finally released on DVD after having been lost in CBS' vaults for several decennia.

A must buy!

Ron and Valerie will be with us in February for the running of the Bulls.

Valerie Taylor honored!!!

From Sky News.

Shark expert honoured for conservation
Updated: 12:52, Monday June 14, 2010

Underwater adventurer and shark expert Valerie Taylor has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her service to conservation in today's Queen's Birthday honours list.
Together with her husband Ronald, Ms Taylor has fought for over fifty years for the protection of underwater creatures, in particular the great white shark and the grey nurse shark. She has also fought for the conservation of habitats including the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef Marine Park in Western Australia and also wants to see sea lions, the potato cod, the southern right whale and marine turtles protected.

From the official announcement.

Mrs Valerie May TAYLOR
Fairlight NSW 2094
For service to conservation and the environment as an advocate for the protection and preservation of marine wildlife and habitats, particularly the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef, and as an underwater cinematographer and photographer.

Is there any other Ozzie couple where both are members (Ron was honored in 2003) of the Order?
Don't think so!

Valerie - love you always!

The Sharkman meets Ron & Valerie Taylor

Hello Ron & Valerie.

Welcome to SHARKMAN’S WORLD

Sharkman: In 95% of all Shark related material, your names can be found. How long have you been Interested in Sharks?

Ron: I have been interested in sharks ever since I can remember because I heard stories of people being attacked by sharks along our coastline and my parents used to take me swimming in the ocean when I was very young

Read more of the interview with Ron & Valerie...

Valerie, love you always!

Thank you Valerie.
I just met an ozzie diver from Sydney who didn't know who she is, so there.

This is once again about the Coral Sea.
Australia has the opportunity to create the world's largest MPA, but many environmentalists are deeply dissatisfied with the detail planning.
Valerie is one of them and after having given a stellar interview on Radio Australia, she has graciously agreed to narrate the following video.

Culling the Sharks of the Neptune Islands?

I believe there will be some culling, some time in the future there will be culling of sharks, because we will have other shark attacks.

The lady at the top is Valerie Taylor.

Next year, she's going to be 80 - and she is still fighting for the Ocean, like she has done for the past 50 years. She is a titan in marine and Shark conservation and one of Australia's most honored and revered personalities - and rightly so.

And some assholes are trying to destroy her legacy.

It's not only about the Sharks - what is at risk is the precious and totally unique marine ecosystem that was finally protected in 2012, specifically also the Neptune Islands Group (Ron and Valerie Taylor) Marine Park that is honoring her and Ron's tremendous contribution to marine conservation. And this is also going to impact Rodney and Andrew Fox's pioneering Shark tourism operation that continues to generate millions in tourism dollars and has become a pivotal platform for education, research and conservation in Australia.

This shit is so bad, it is just simply absurd.

Valerie is fighting this together with local conservation groups and politicians which is great. But whilst I can find this Facebook turd (wow - just wow) on the anti protection side, I see NOTHING on all those usual sharky social media that profess to be saving sharks with all those actions and petitions and awareness and statements and the like.

And all those names?

All those whisperers an warriors and girls and whatnot that have all been rushing to WA like fucking lemmings in order to promote themselves as Shark saviors? Quite obviously, totally missing in action! You may want to remember that next time somebody wants to convince you that they are fearless and badass!

But I'm digressing as always.

Fingers crossed that common sense prevails!

Alas, in this case, I'm not very hopeful.

Global Shark Diving - the Ambassadors!

Behold!

This is one of the outcomes of last month's Royalty meeting.

Valerie, Michele and Howard have graciously agreed to join Douglas as GSD Ambassadors. You can read their bios right here - and yes Valerie's is rather long but without in any way wanting to detract from the achievements and obviously, huge respect for the others, Valerie is truly in a class of her own and also looks back to a very, very long and extremely rich career as both daredevil, pioneer, photo journalist, artist but above all, marine conservationist.

We all are of course stoked - and humbled.

Welcome aboard!

And because we love them so much.

Here they are again together with Emily Seifert, the indefatigable Jayne, Ozzie Sam and a whole gaggle of BAD  boyz 'n gals - click for detail!

Great People!

Valerie, the indefatigable Jayne, Maya the scholar, Gauthier, some BAD boyz, and friends - click for detail!

We're having a great time.

And yes, at over 80, Valerie still dives with big Sharks and is as badass as ever!

Need I say more.

Nonsense - but for a good Cause!

This reminds me of that trip to Wolf and Darwin.

We had chartered the venerable Sulidae (more than a century old - and cabin 6 in the stern castle with its multicolored windows is just plain amazing - very retro! The only thing missing is a lava lamp!) for a special charter to the northern Galapagos and had been put under the tutelage of the compulsory naturalist guide provided by the Darwin Station, a real delightful and funny guy called Carlos.

Carlos was a great stickler for discipline and strict protocols, and he started off by having us undergo a thorough check-out dive which consisted in freezing off our collective bums somewhere near Baltra whilst proving that we were able to face the most rigorous challenges diving would throw at us. Which incidentally resulted in some truly epic footage of Valerie Taylor being tested in the arcane art of clearing one's mask - all gleefully recorded for posterity by her loving husband.

So weighed, tested and not found wanting, we all had a wonderful time despite the ubiquitous Garua, saw tons of humongous Whale Sharks, made friends with that pack of Galapagos Sharks on that corner of Wolf, drifted into enormous schools of Hammerheads and Silkies and generally drove Carlos crazy by never, ever, ever keeping to anything that could even remotely be described as a responsible buddy diving system. Poor Carlos gave up the valiant fight halfway through the trip - and ended up telling us that he had experienced some of the best dives of his life as a consequence!

Anyway, on the way back, we stopped at Isla Bartolomé and went ashore to take some pics of the Penguins and Sea Lions, only to have Carlos chastise us when we started unpacking our strobes. That was apparently strictly forbidden and when questioned about the reasons, he proceeded to lecture us about the fact that strobe light would cause permanent damage to the vision, but above all, to the developing embryos of the pregnant Sea Lions!
At which Valerie quietly took him to one side and whilst lauding his zeal, gently explained that he should stop making up such nonsense as it was completely destroying his credibility and defeating the aims of what he was trying to achieve.

I was reminded of Carlos when I found this article.

In it, an equally valiant Filipino fisheries official is trying to promote Whale Sharks as the "heroic" ultimate saviors of a bay infested by pollution and a Red Tide of Harmful Algal Bloom.
I can see that what he is really trying to achieve, is to convince the local fishermen that Whale Sharks are useful and thus worthy of protection. In a way, that's smart pro-Conservation marketing using a local calamity as a pretext.

That is, until one starts to examine the details.
Of course, Whale Sharks are not giant mammals - but let's be generous and attribute that to an editorial mistake.
But "Plankton" is not simply "Plankton" and Whale Sharks eat Zooplankton, not algae. Here, we're talking about a persistent and apparently, toxic algal bloom which is said to be triggered by pollution - hardly the kind of meal that would motivate an army of Whale Sharks to hone in for a feast!
Whale Sharks are not just dumb biological water purifiers that roam the Oceans, mouth wide agape, in the hopes that something useful may end up getting swept inside - they are selective and rather "smart" active predators of Zooplankton and small Fish that have developed efficient hunting techniques and periodically aggregate in areas featuring high concentrations of other suitable nourishment like Coral and Fish spawn.

I would also dare to venture the presumption that the assertion that they are immune to toxins which are lethal to humans is a "Carlos", a daring and spectacular assertion that has been made up on the fly.

In fact, it's not even very plausible.
I did google "Red Tide dead Fish" and have come up with 1,240,000 entries talking about the toxicity of Red Tides to Vertebrates. There's no reason to assume that Evolution would have selected for a largely oceanic Carnivore to have developed an immunity to a largely coastal phenomenon involving plant-like matter - the more as most coastal Fishes for whom the selective pressure would have to be higher haven't managed to do so, this probably owing to the rarity of those tides.

Much rather, I would think that a Whale Shark venturing upon a cloud of toxic algae would sense its taste, keep its mouth closed and simply swim somewhere else.

But I shall be happy to be proven wrong!
Anybody out there who knows?

Tuff Stuff!

Jeremiah and I go back all the way to 1978.

I had just started working with a small and now defunct Swiss dive travel operator and had embarked in POM on the Little Red Ship on my way to Fiji, a memorable trip in many ways and my very first foray into the South Pacific.
I remember Jeremiah being a sinewy, bearded young Biology student with an inexhaustible store of energy and enthusiasm. When I and a friend went walkabout and promptly got lost on Tikopia, it was he who headed the search party that found us perambulating on a beach surrounded by a bunch of statuesque Polynesian warriors. Now I know better, but then, having just escaped a bloody tribal war in the Trobriands, I was firmly convinced that I was about to become the guest of honor at their next supper, if you get what I mean. Never has anybody been welcomed with more relief, and remembered ever since!

When he wasn't directing the diving and the excursions (and searching for stupid greenhorns), he would abscond with Ron to conspire about the construction of a Shark-proof wetsuit made from the same stainless steel chain mail used by professional butchers.
The rest of course is history.
Ron ended up getting himself a chain mail suit which turned out to be too small and was promptly gifted (an Ozzie euphemism for "slapped on") to Valerie who thus became the world's most famous piece of Shark bait.

I kinda lost sight of Jeremiah, then saw him and his newly patented Shark suit pop up again when Howard, Marty and Bob started baiting Sharks off San Diego.
Those were the glorious days of Chuck Nicklin's Diving Locker and of some boats called, if memory serves me right, Bottom Scratcher and Sand Dollar. I remember Howard showing me his first fantastic pics of Makos and Blues, Mola Molas and Basking Sharks and later on, schooling Hammerheads, Manta riders, Marlin and humongous Whale Sharks from Baja. Out there, everybody seemed to be busy wrestling sharks wearing Jeremiah's suits. And remember the infamous Shark Tagging Competitions? Glorious times!

Back to Jeremiah, I believe I once discovered his name on the rolling credits of some noisy but otherwise, heroic movie featuring some intrepid Marines, Navy SEALs or the like, wasting a huge amount of ammo and bombs in order to kill and being killed for the greater cause of mankind. This was the 80ies and the bad guys were good old fashioned commies, funny accent and all. Might he even have been one of those? Frankly, I don't remember - but it sure was intrepid!

Then -and talking of which-, here pops up this picture, I believe by Chip Matheson, featuring him being dragged along by a Great White through some murky water in South Australia!
Although nobody really knows who is the first diver to have gone cageless with a Great White (it may be Giddings or it may be Ron - my vote obviously being for the latter), this is probably the very first time anybody has been crazy enough to go ride them.
Now That's what I call cojones! thinks me, and u even know the guy...

It is Jeremiah who finally managed to find me.
Having heard about our Shark feeding activities and being the proud owner and developer of today's ultimate Shark protection gear, he decided to swing by our booth. Imagine his surprise in finding out that we knew each other! Talk about it being a small world!

So far, our feeders' protection has been a couple of good old-fashioned steel mesh butchers' gloves that Ron and I bought in Sydney some years ago. They work with the smaller Sharks and we're not about to willingly test them on the Bulls, or God forbid, Scarface or the like - knock on wood!

But having conferred with Jeremiah, help may be on its way.
Whether a partial HardArmour or my favorite, his newest unobtrusive Waterman Pro, we sure will give it a try! Not literally, mind you, as anybody who has seen the footage of that Blue jerking around Valerie knows all to well not to go messing around with the big guys. But it will be nice to have some additional protection!

Tuff Stuff by a Tuff Guy - what better could we ask for!

What we are and do – and not!

Just in case!

From a recent message by a friend
It's getting to the point where the inmates are running the asylum.

Indeed – but not in Fiji!
Here are some considerations that we’re about to post on our home page. They reflect the fact that we’re catering to a specific market segment and mindset, and will as a consequence always remain unattractive for some other demographics.

Here’s why you should choose Beqa Adventure Divers.

• This is the original product. Yes the company has only been established in 2004 but some of our staff are the very people who have discovered and named most dive sites within Beqa Lagoon and above all, developed the Fiji Shark Dive. No dive team in Fiji is this experienced! The Shark dive on Shark Reef has been conducted since 1999 and is the only such dive that has been described as The Best Shark Dive in the World by Ron and Valerie Taylor and a whole host of diving icons and publications thereafter.

• This is principally a marine conservation project that includes a dive operation, and not vice versa. Our seamless integration of diving, conservation, education, outreach and research has been hailed world wide. We are not on the hunt for awards and personal fame of whispering and the like, but instead, prefer to work hard at researching and protecting Sharks in Fiji and elsewhere. We also do not enable anti-Shark media.
  

• You are going to dive within Shark Reef Marine Reserve, Fiji’s first marine sanctuary dedicated to the protection of Sharks that has been established by one of our shareholders in cooperation with government and local stakeholders. This is the original site that has been featured in countless publications all across the world.

• We are a renowned ecotourism operator and always strive to further reduce our ecological and carbon footprints. From installing fixed moorings on all of our dive sites to running fuel efficient engines, everything we do is geared to minimizing our impact on the environment.

• We are beholden to Fiji. We cooperate closely with Fiji's government and local communities and stakeholders, and generally strive to make a contribution to enhancing the country’s international reputation and prosperity, and that of its people. With the exception of the directors, all of our staff are Fijians who partake directly in our success via a generous bonus scheme. All of our earnings accrue and are taxed in Fiji, meaning that we do not operate offshore booking offices and do not dodge taxes by circling our cash flow via shell companies in tax heavens.

• Safety is our main concern and our safety record is pristine. Whilst always striving to provide a memorable and highly enjoyable experience, we observe stringent safety guidelines comprising regular maintenance, upgrades and surveys of all of our infrastructure, highly trained staff, exhaustive dive briefings, special Shark diving procedures, high staff to client ratio, non decompression diving and comprehensive emergency equipment and protocols.

• We provide for excellent and exclusive service. BAD is a high end operator and we pride ourselves in being highly professional and mindful of the needs and comfort of our clients. Specifically, we limit the number of customers on our boats and you will never experience any dive where divers from other operations will join in and spoil your exclusive experience.

• You will be able to capture stunning images. We are experienced UW photographers and videographers and know our sites, Fishes and Sharks. We have designed the Shark dive in view of allowing for unobstructed and clear views of the animals, and experienced elite amateurs will be safely positioned in strategic locations from where they will be able to shoot top-notch pictures and video.

By the same token, you should NOT book a dive with us

• If you are not cool. Fiji’s has been rightly called the friendliest country in the world and we are eager to please you in any way we can – but this is still a developing country, cultures differ, and quality standards and above all, the concept of time are subject to interpretation. We generally run a tight ship but transfers may run late, luggage may be lost (but is usually found) and bookings may be mishandled - such is life in the tropics and Paradise comes at a price. In general, all problems get eventually resolved and losing one’s temper usually makes things worse, not better. Please also keep in mind that service providers are not servants and that nobody likes to be talked down at.

• If you are an adrenaline junkie. Yes our Shark dive is in many ways a spectacle, but we respect the animals and our show has nothing to do with intrepid native heroes showcasing their courage and manhood, or whatever, by wrangling lethal apex predators. We try to convey a sense of wonder and awe and do not subscribe to notions of extreme Shark diving and the like. You are invited to join us as a spectator - and thank you, but we do not need your help. Concurrently, we do not enable radical close-up captures by amateur image hunters.

• If you’ve been everywhere, seen it all and now it all better. You may indeed be incredibly important and good - but please, let us be the judge of that. We’ve been operating successfully and safely for many years and nobody even remotely matches our experience when it comes to these specific dives. Whilst you may unleash your experience, skills and creativity on our reef dives, our Shark dive is a tightly choreographed event where you will not be allowed to roam and improvise but will be directed and supervised instead. We very much encourage constructive feedback as a vital contribution to improving our product – but we take badly to vocal public lecturing, posturing and self-professed stardom. In the softest possible way, if icons like, say, Ron and Valerie Taylor, Stan Waterman and Doug Perrine don’t display those attitudes, neither should you.

• If you are a Shark hugger. Large predatory Sharks are potentially lethal and need to be respected and not romanticized. Also, our Shark dive has nothing to do with a natural situation where the animals display natural behavior: it is essentially a show where we have conditioned the animals to observe a uniform, predictable and safe routine, this principally for safety reasons. Feeding Sharks is controversial but we believe that it does not harm the animals, a fact that is consistently being confirmed by all relevant research - and no, we’re really not eager to engage in this debate!

• If you are an anti-smoking zealot. Smoking is a personal choice and we allow it during the surface intervals, provided that smokers retire to the stern platform which is downwind from the cabin and the fuel tanks. Smokers are not criminals and smoke does not travel upwind, ever.

There you have it - now you know!