56th clinic

In celebration of the 56th clinic, world-famous ocean explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle hosted an exclusive Boston Sea Rovers Saturday Evening Film Festival at the New England Aquarium’s Simons IMAX Theater on March 6^th, 2010. The evening also included an after-show party aboard the 175-foot-long Motor Vessel Majesty, which was moored alongside the Aquarium. The Sea Rovers’ underwater film festival is legendary, and this year’s show was among the most memorable in history. 

The presenters at this clinic included:

Dr. Sylvia Earle has been at the frontier of deep ocean exploration for four decades. She hasled more than 70 expeditions worldwide, involving more than 6,000 hours underwater. As captainof the first all-female team to live underwater in the Tektite Project in 1970, she and herfellow scientists received a ticker-tape parade and White House reception upon their return tothe surface. In 1979, Sylvia Earle walked untethered on the sea floor at 1250’, a deeper depththan any other woman before or since. She also holds the women’s record for a solo dive in adeep submersible (3280 feet, 1000m). At the bottom, she detached from the vessel and exploredthe depths for two and a half hours with only a communication line connecting her to thesubmersible, and nothing at all connecting her to the world above. In the ‘80s she started thecompanies Deep Ocean Engineering and Deep Ocean Technologies with engineer GrahamHawkes to design and build undersea vehicles that allow scientists to work at previously inaccessibledepths. In the early 1990s, Dr. Earle served as Chief Scientist of the National Oceanographicand Atmospheric Administration. Sylvia is president of Deep Search International andchair of the Advisory Council for the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. Shehas a B.S. from Florida State University, an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Duke University, and 15honorary degrees. She has authored more than 150 scientific, technical, and popular publications,lectured in more than 60 countries, and appeared in hundreds of television productions.Earle is the author of many books on the ocean, including Sea Change: A Message of theOceans and, most recently, Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas. At present she is explorer-in-residenceat the National Geographic Society, and she most recently won a TED award, and has planneda global summit in Galapogos Island to address concerns most dear to her heart. Sylvia Earleis a dedicated advocate for the world’s oceans and the creatures that live in them. Her voicespeaks with wonder and amazement at the glory of the oceans and with urgency to awaken thepublic from its ignorance about the role the oceans plays in all of our lives and the importance ofmaintaining their health. “We’ve got to somehow stabilize our connection to nature so that in 50years from now, 500 years, 5,000 years from now there will still be a wild system and respect forwhat it takes to sustain us.”

Peter Scoones is a legend in the rarified world of underwater cinematographers. An Emmyaward winning underwater photographer (The Great White Shark and Blue Planet) and a threetimewinner of the Palm D’or at the Antibes Film Festival, Peter’s incredible career as an underwaterphotographer, film maker, and equipment designer began when he learned to dive offSingapore while serving in the Royal Air Force. He maintains that his first dive in 1959 was hisbest, and it inspired him to construct both his own aqua lungs and his first underwater housing.His first feature film “Breathless Moments” won a gold medal at the first Brighton Film Festivalin 1965 and shortly thereafter, he and Colin Doeg cofounded the renowned British Society ofUnderwater Photographers. Building on his rare ability to both visualize the images he wants toshare and construct the technology to make those images, Peter co-founded a production companyand developed low-light inspection cameras for the offshore oil industry. This experiencebrought him a “knock on the door” from Sir David Attenborough who wanted for the first time tofilm a live coelacanth in the deep waters off Comoros Island for the BBCs ‘Life on Earth’ series.Since then, Peter and his partner Georgette Douwma have worked extensively with the BBCNatural History Unit, making both the images and the equipment for films such as ‘Antarctica:Life in the Freezer’, ‘The Great White Shark’, and‘Blue Planet’. He also developed the HDsystems used for ‘Planet Earth’, ‘Galapagos’, and ‘Life’. Fifty-one years after that first dive in theFar East, Peter retains his passion for diving and film-making and is actively pursuing newprojects in the Red Sea, Maldives, and Indonesia. We’re honored to have him join us in one ofhis rare U.S. appearances, and we are fortunate that his schedule permitted him a brief breakfrom his demanding film projects.

Wes Skiles has a wealth of exploration, photography and cinematography credits to his name.His work has spanned the globe, from the world’s deepest caves, to the largest glacier everrecorded, and from the deep ocean depths of the Pacific Northwest, to the wilds of the AfricanSavanah. His photos have been published in National Geographic, Scientific American, andhundreds of other publications. Scanning the television, views will find his work on all the majornetworks, as well as Discovery, and A&E. As an expedition cameraman, Skiles specializes incapturing images of people and wildlife on the edge of extreme frontiers. His visual imageryprovides the viewer with an intimate understanding and unique perspective of his subjects.Skiles works on assignment as a freelance photographer for National Geographic magazine.His work has also been featured in Outside and numerous diving publications. Skiles is equallyskilled in the art of telling stories though moving pictures. He has produced, directed, andfilmed over a hundred television films, many of which have won international awards and acclaim.As a native Floridian, Wes was one of the first humans to explore, map, and documentmany of North Florida’s most treasured springs. Over his lifetime he has explored over 300,000feet of previously unexplored passages within the Florida Aquifer. These unique experiencesexploring the state’s drinking water, combined with a deep love for his native state, have drivenhim to be one of the most vocal advocates for preserving and protecting Florida’s preciouswater resources. Wes has worked on challenging IMAX productions, and was the Director ofUnderwater Photography for the MacGilliveray/Freeman production “Journey Into AmazingCaves”. A partial list if his film and video credits include: Producer & Director of Photographywith the PBS television series New Explorers, winning eight awards in seven years; Producer,Director, Writer and Cameraman for the one hour adventure education special Ocean Spirit;producer, writer and cameraman for A&E’s “New Explorers, Polluting the Fountain of Youth”.Last year, he was Director of Photography for PBS’s Time Warp, where he and his team tackledthe formidable task of lighting and capturing images filmed at speeds up to 250,000 frames persecond! One of his most recent projects saw him filming blue hole caves in the Bahamas forWGBH’s “Extreme Cave Diving”, a project that follows a fearless team of scientists as theyventure into blue holes—underwater caves that formed during the last ice age, when sea levelwas nearly 400 feet below what it is today.

Cinematographer DJ Roller is home-based in Atlanta, GA, but his work with his company LiquidPictures keeps him busy traveling around the globe just about year round. He has beendiving for over twenty years, and has logged over 5,000 dives. DJ has traveled to all sevencontinents for clients ranging from NOVA to Discovery Channel, from National Geographic toPBS/Nature. Shooting outdoors and underwater in nearly all formats of film and high-definitionvideo, Roller has trekked through the mountains of Patagonia, dove miles into massive underwatercave systems, and explored beneath the ice of Antarctica. He’s filmed the Monitor offNC, the wrecks of Pearl Harbor, episodes of Deep Sea Detectives around the world, and severalEco-Challenge programs for Discovery in Argentina, Morocco, and Australia. Liquid Picturesis one of the most experienced production companies currently working in 3D films andtelevision, producing and collaborating on projects for many of the world’s leading media companies.The proprietary 4K 3D Digital Cinema Camera System that DJ and his partner recentlydeveloped is the world’s first all-in-one 3D system, uniquely built with an unprecedented rangeof acquisition options, capable of shooting in any environment: studio, location, and underwater.Built with beam splitter technology and a highly advanced housing, this ground breakingsystem is the first to capture 3D macro cinematography above or underwater, removing oldbarriers to bringing the most ambitious cinematic visions to the screen. In short, it can capturethe grandest vista in Antarctica, action sequences on a Hollywood set, or a fingernail-sizedcreature at the bottom of the ocean. DJ has contributed to several landmark 3D films, includingGhosts of the Abyss 3D, U2 3D, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Wild Ocean 3D. He hasbeen able to arrange a special showing of Wild Ocean 3D in conjunction with this film festival,and as an added bonus, he’s going to be sharing an intro to his latest 3D IMAX project, yet to bereleased.

Dr. Gregory Skomal is an accomplished marine biologist, underwater explorer, photographer,aquarist, and author. He has been a senior fisheries biologist with Massachusetts Marine Fisheriessince 1987 and currently heads up the Massachusetts Shark Research Program (MSRP).9He is also adjunct faculty at the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology in NewBedford, MA, a guest investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA, and anadjunct scientist with the Center for Shark Research in Sarasota, FL. He holds a master's degree from the Universityof Rhode Island and a Ph.D. from Boston University. Through the MSRP, Greg has been actively involved inthe study of life history, ecology, and physiology of sharks. His shark research has spanned multiple fish habitatsaround the globe taking him from the frigid waters of the Arctic Circle to coral reefs in the tropical Central Pacific.Much of his current research centers on the use of acoustic telemetry, satellite-based technology, and animalborneimaging to assess the physiological impacts of capture stress on the post-release survivorship and behaviorof sharks. He has written dozens of scientific research papers and has appeared in a number of film and televisiondocumentaries, including programs for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, ESPN, and numerous televisionnetworks. He has been an avid SCUBA diver and underwater photographer since 1978. Although his researchpassion for the last twenty-five years has centered on sharks, he has been an avid aquarist for over thirty yearshaving written eleven books on aquarium keeping. His most recent book, The Shark Handbook, is a must buy forall shark enthusiasts. He is a Boston Sea Rover, and his home and laboratory are on the island of Martha'sVineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. In September of 2009, Greg was the head biologist in charge of trackingand tagging a group of Great White sharks that were congregating close to the islands off Chatham, MA. He willbe sharing stills, film footage, and data obtained from these magnificent beasts, the apex predator of the ocean.

Post Festival Reception

A post-festival reception and Meet the Speakers Party was held aboard the luxurious M/V Majesty. This beautiful ship, located right next door to the Aquarium was graciously provided by a Clinic Corporate Sponsor, Boston Harbor Cruises. 

majesty