About Us
This is a production from the hearts and souls of a passionate a team. We were blessed with the support of some of the most published authors and image makers of our natural world. OceanNEnvironment is privileged to introduce the editorial board of Ocean Geographic Society. Board of Directors, OceanNEnvironment Australia
The Editorial Board
Michael Aw – Director
Pursuing the art of underwater photography, Michael AW is best known for his saturated colour imagery. His photographs and editorials on environmental issues, natural history and dive travel have been featured in Asian Geographic, BBC Wildlife, National Geographic Travel, Asian Geographic, GEO, Nature Focus, Sport Diving, Scuba Diver, Smithsonian, Islands, FHM, Times, to name but a few. He was the co-founder and publisher of Asian Geographic and Scuba Diver Australasia for seven years. Michael AW is also the founding director of OceanNEnvironment, a charity organization registered with Environment Australia. Michael is a three time winner at the World Festival of Underwater Pictures, Antibes. In 2002 he won Best Music Adaptation for Video, the Gold Diver statue for Best Black & White print in 2005 and the Bronze stature for Portfolio, the most prestigious categories of the festival in 2006. He is also a recipient of two awards from the ‘Natural History Museum BBC Photographer of the Year Wildlife Competition'. In 2006 he was the Best Winner in the underwater category.
Joe Moreira - Managing Editor
Joe Moreira is ane adventurer, speaker, thinker, trainer and counselor. An early career in the military, offered opportunities to learn, develop, teach, strategise and validate new ideas in the highly specialized fields of demolitions and mine warfare. Gifted with a richly timbered voice, it has been used to speak, train and facilitate with impact and conviction to audiences ranging from heads of states and foreign armies to the ordinary man in the community. An inquiring mind that seeks solutions and better options to go beyond excellence, immersed early in the NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) technology. A blend of military discipline and holding the reins of Bradbury Wilkinson & Co, an international security printer in Singapore offered insight to the multinational corporate world and the governments in that world. It later translated into entrepreneurship in 3 different and highly specialized companies. Making a full circle after all the adventurous exploits in other highly specialized and colourful fields, the deep conviction to protect our environment has found synergy with the Ocean Geographic Society's vision and goals. A long time advocate that good leaders decide the fate of good corporate culture and governance, which must include the need to protect our environment and synergizing with nature, stayed the course in the face of many challenges to this belief; which is now being accepted and practised far more readily and widely. Ocean Geographic is now a means to walk the talk so ardently preached.
Christopher Lee - Editor Emeritus
Christopher Lee was the co- founder of Asian Geographic and the managing editor (amongst other things!) for six years until 2005. Chris was also behind the successful transformation of Scuba Diver Australasia, and was its managing editor until 2005. He has worked on a range of marine conservation issues including the successful Say No to Sharkfin campaign. Chris has also served on the board of OceanNEnvironment. Building on his early career in economic research, he is currently a Senior Economist with the Department of Environment and Climate Change (NSW) in Australia.
Emory Kristof - Honorary Editor
Emory's photography has discovered the unexplored worlds of the deep sea. In August 1998 Kristof's pictures of the Titanic were presented in the National Geographic magazine article, "Tragedy in Three Dimensions." The pictures, taken in 1991 employing high-intensity lighting systems, achieved unprecedented detail due to advances in 3-D computer video-editing. Born in 1942, Kristof studied journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park and received a bachelor's degree in 1964. Kristof was a National Geographic staff photographer from 1964 to 1994 and has produced 39 articles for the National Geographic magazine. Kristof's accomplishments have earned many awards for both writing and photography, including the NOGI Award for Arts from the Underwater Society of America in 1988 and an Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award for Underwater Exploration in 1986. That same year Kristof received the American Society of Magazine Publishers Innovation in Photography Award for their photographic coverage of the Titanic. Kristof was presented with the 1998 J. Winton Lemen Fellowship Award by the U.S. National Press Photographers Association "for being one of our profession's most imaginative innovators with particular attention to pictures from beneath the ocean brought to the readers of National Geographic magazine."
Stan Waterman
Stan Waterman has been at the forefront of scuba diving since its inception as a recreational sport both at home and throughout the world. Stan was co-director of underwater photography and the second unit in the production of The Deep, a movie based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel. More recent productions include documentaries for ABC's "Spirit of Adventure" series and the "Expedition Earth" series on ESPN. Stan has received numerous honours and awards for his work in television, including five Emmies, two Gold Medals from the U.K. Underwater Film Festival, four Golden Eagles, a lifetime Achievement Award from the Miami Expo and from Boston Sea Rovers, the Cousteau Diver of the Year Award, the Richard Hopper Day Memorial Medal from the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and most recently has been inducted to the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.
Wyland
Marine life artist Wyland has developed an international reputation for his commitment to marine life conservation. Most notable, is his monumental marine life murals, the Whaling Walls. Spanning thousands of square feet, these massive works of art expose the thrilling diversity and beauty of life that exists below the surface of our ocean planet to more than one billion people each year. Today, this multi-faceted artist works in multiple mediums, from oils, water colours, acrylics, Japanese ink paintings, bronze sculptures, fine art photography, and mixed media.
Doug Perrine
Doug Perrine is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost marine wildlife photographers. His photographs have been reproduced in virtually every major nature magazine in the world, as well as in thousands of books, calendars, greeting cards, posters, etc. His photography has won a number of awards, including the prestigious BBC/ British Gas Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in the animal behaviour category and the Nature's Best/ Cemex competition in the Professional Marine Wildlife category. He is also the author of seven books on marine life, and numerous magazine articles.
Jennifer Hayes
Jen Hayes is an aquatic ecologist who has collected a couple of graduate degrees in zoology, marine and fisheries biology. She came into underwater journalism (photography and writing) out of sheer necessity to enliven dull scientific presentations and publications. To put it simply, strong images of ancient sturgeons spawning, hatching, migrating are infinitely more captivating to an audience than bar graphs and pie charts. Photography and science lead to natural history articles and then into popular journalism. Jen formed a partnership with David Doubilet in 1999 and co-founded the stock photo company, Undersea Images Inc. Jen and David co-photograph and write for assignment features for numerous domestic and international publications, ad shoots and book projects.
David Doubilet
David Doubilet is a leading underwater photographer, who challenges himself is to redefine photographic boundaries each time he enters the water. His passion is the undersea majesty of light and how to capture it. Completely at home on a coral reef, a World War II wreck, a deep dark fjord or among the great giants in our sea, David has relentlessly pursued the many hidden layers of coral reefs around the globe. His cold water work has immersed him in the rich waters of New Zealand, Tasmania, Scotland, Japan, the Northwest Atlantic and Northeast Pacific. Recent photographic journeys have taken him into some of the largest freshwater systems on our planet such as the great Okavango Delta system in Botswana and the St. Lawrence River.
Dr Carden Wallace
Carden's research has focused on biogeography and biodiversity, particularly on corals and tropical biota. Her current interests are directed towards other tropical countries, especially Indonesia. She feels strongly that scientists should give back all they possibly can, in communicating and applying the results of their work. With her appointment in 1987 as Curator in Charge, Carden Wallace became the frst woman to head the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville. Among the high points in her career was the POL Prize for Environmental Research, awarded in 1992 to Carden along with four other scientists from James Cook University for their exciting discovery of mass annual spawning on the Great Barrier Reef by over a hundred species of coral. This dramatic example of sexual synchronisation is unique among animals, and its discovery by the team in 1984 attracted immediate scientific and media attention around the world.
Dr Alexander Mustard
Dr Alexander Mustard worked as a marine biologist until 2004, but now works as an underwater photographer. His photographs are widely published in magazines and newspapers and have also won many awards including being a multiple winner in both the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year and World Festival of Underwater Photography in Antibes, France. Alex was an early adopter of digital cameras and has pioneered several of the techniques of digital underwater photography. He is the brains behind Magic filters - filters designed specifically for available light underwater photography with digital cameras. Alex also runs highly popular digital photography workshops and wildlife trips. He is the Digital Officer for the British Society of Underwater Photographers and a Co-Administrator of Wetpixel.com.
Dr Gerry Allen
Gerald Allen is an internationally renowned authority on the classification and ecology of coral reef fishes of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. He is the author of 31 books and 400 scientific publications. He has an intimate knowledge of fish life on coral reefs, having logged more than 7,000 dives. Field studies form an integral part of Dr. Allen’s research, probably more so than any other marine biologist. He received a Ph.D. in marine zoology from the University of Hawaii in 1971, having done his thesis on anemonefishes. He served as Curator of Fishes at the Western Australian Museum in Perth for 24 years, having retired in 1998 to take a position with Conservation International as their Science Team Leader for marine surveys. Dr. Allen is also an avid underwater photographer. Several thousand of his color photos have appeared in various publications. He is a past President of the Australian Society for Fish Biology, an honorary foreign member of the American Society of Ichthyology and Herpetology, and a recent recipient of the prestigious K. Radway Allen Award for Outstanding Contributions in Ichthyological Science.