DEEP OCEAN EXPEDITIONS - TEAM MEMBERS

Ron and Valerie Taylor

Ron and Valerie Taylor have been a part of the underwater world for nearly 50 years. Their time spent in this realm has given them an exceptional understanding of, and empathy for the marine environment and it's inhabitants.

In the early 1960's Ron and Valerie won numerous titles for spearfishing, but 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, Ron had the idea of wearing a chain mail suit as protection against shark bite. Although the idea worked well, it was not practical for the average diver to wear. More recently they have been successfully testing an electronic device that repels sharks. In 1991 at Dyer Island they became the first divers to film white sharks without a cage in the water. In February 1996, Ron shot an entire white shark documentary protected only by a Shark Pod repeller.

Valerie's spectacular still photography has appeared in printed matter the world over, and has won her many awards the most recent being Nature Photographer of the Year in the US.. She is also a very talented artist, an occupation she restarted in 1994.

Both Ron and Valerie work for conservation of the marine life with some very important successes to date. Valerie was made a Knight Of The Golden Ark, for her work towards the protection of coral reefs and their inhabitants.