420 Dive Log Australasia OCTOBER 2026

Juvenile Imperial Angel fish from North Solitary Island

passion for marine life. If I did not learn to dive, I would be a Herpetologist, a Botanist, an arachnophile and a land photographer to boot. Over the last forty years, I have owned Nikonos cameras, four underwater housings, about a dozen strobes. I have spent millions on cameras and film etc, figuratively speaking. I did four expeditions to Osprey Reef in the 1980’s and recorded twenty-three species of Butterfly fish on one dive. Osprey reef is famous for its marine biodiversity. Before long, I had thousands of slides and had to work out how to store and sort them. For me, it was the dilemma of Location versus Scientific classification. Naturally, I tried to do both. Since then, I have collections of Angelfish, Angler fish, Coral Cod, Trout,Wrasse, Nudibranchs and a thousand more. The next obvious step is to learn more about them. I have been fortunate in having university level training in Marine Biology. I learned about the anatomy and structure of both marine Invertebrates and vertebrates and some plants. Many of these areas of study could easily become an all encompassing project.

You could spend a lifetime becoming a world expert on Flatworms, Octopi or sharks. In fact, you could get a thousand professors of Marine Biology who specialise in differing areas of Marine Biology with very little overlap. Underwater photography drives passionate divers to delve deeper into the ocean’s many wonders. Many divers have libraries on marine life worth thousands. I am one of the few people in Australia that can jabber on for an hour on Flatworms or Sea Urchins or sharks off the top of my head and keep it interesting and informative. There is a lot to learn about both of them. Golden age of Marine Biology Beneath the sea, there is a lot of living treasure to be discovered. We are now living in a golden age of Marine Science.There are literally thousands of new scientists who have studied more about the sea since the year 2000. The best examples I can think of are Australia’s fish. Forty years ago, we knew a little about commercially valuable fish such as Bream, Snapper, Flathead, Kingfish and a few others driven mostly by commercial pressure.We only

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Dive Log Australasia #420 October ’26

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