DiveFilm Podcast Video

In this hauntingly beautiful footage of pelagic marine animals in the dark of night, Matthew D'Avella takes us into a realm rarely entered by scuba divers: Black Water. Many divers are familiar with Blue Water diving where the diving takes place in open ocean. Much of the marine life encountered is found only or primarily in this pelagic, or open ocean, environment. This film is about the open ocean animals that come out at night, and more specifically the nocturnal open ocean animals off the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. Matthew D'Avella is currently based in Kona, Hawaii and works most nights as a boat captain and dive guide at the famous Manta Ray Night Dives of Kona. By day, Matthew is a woodworker and produces one-of-a-kind custom furniture. He also produces some stunningly beautiful video. To learn more about Matthew, please check out his website at www.mdavella.com, and his bio on the Filmmakers Page at DiveFilm.com. We hope you enjoy this podcast!

Underwater photographer, digital wizard, musician and writer, Eric Cheng of Wetpixel.com recently decided to add underwater videography to his repertoire. In this recent interview with Mary Lynn Price, Eric talks about his first underwater video experience diving with Tiger and Bull Sharks in about a three knot current. He also discusses the aspects of his still photography work that helped him in the transition to underwater video, and what new skills and knowledge he needed to acquire for good underwater video. This episode features some of Eric's amazing underwater images, both still and video. To learn more about Eric and his work, please check out his website, echeng.com, and Wetpixel.com, the website for underwater digital imagers. Wetpixel.com has teamed up with DiveFilm.com to bring DiveFilm Podcast Video to divers and ocean lovers around the world through iTunes and other video podcast aggregators.

"Nobody Loves You" is Leandro Blanco's homage to sharks, and his expression of deep concern for their future. In this short beautifully edited film, a number of disturbing facts about shark fishing, shark finning and shark population decline are presented. Images of graceful healthy Tiger Sharks are juxtaposed with tragic scenes of shark fishing and finning, all set to Leandro's original song, "Nobody Loves You." Born in Spain, Leandro Blanco is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker who has a background in music composition, recording and production. He is a professional airline pilot with a passion for nature and underwater imaging. His film editing and compositing techniques distinguish his work; and the awards he has received internationally are too numerous to mention. For more information on Leandro, please go to the Filmmakers Page at http://DiveFilm.com.

We at DiveFilm Podcast Video are delighted to kick off the summer season with three short public service announcement flicks from ShiftingBaselines.org. Submit your own web flick PSA to ShiftingBaselines.org and win cash and prizes, and help make a difference in the future of the ocean. Please visit ShiftingBaselines.org for more information! From their website: "Shifting Baselines is a "media project" -- a partnership between ocean conservation and Hollywood to help bring attention to the severity of ocean decline. We are not an action group and we do not have any membership to join. If we have done our job well and you are motivated to help protect the world's oceans, then PLEASE join one, some, or all of our PARTNER groups. They are the people really doing things. They have the "Get Involved" buttons, the Action Plans, and the Grassroots Activities. They need your help and are seeking donations. If you would like to donate to The Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project, please contact us at info@shiftingbaselines.org."

Well-known and loved as a great American folk singer, 89 year old Sam Hinton was also curator of the old Scripps Aquarium Museum from the mid 1940s through the mid 1960s. Sam inspired millions of people, young and old, in their love of the ocean and marine life. He began collecting creatures for the aquarium as a helmet diver for Scripps, then went on to learn Aqualung diving from the legendary Conrad Limbaugh on one of the first Aqualung units in the U.S. Naturalist, artist, author, teacher and folk singer, Sam Hinton is a true treasure. I hope you enjoy this recent interview with Sam about his Scripps Years. A special thank you to Sam Hinton's biographer, Adam Miller, for all his help with images, music and a wealth of knowledge about folk music and Sam. Adam is also an incredible folk singer in the the great Sam Hinton tradition. For more information on Sam Hinton, please go to www.SamHinton.org. For more information on Adam Miller, please go to www.FolkSinger.org. And for more information on the current work of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, please go to www.aquarium.ucsd.edu.

In this wonderful podcast, Walter Marti explores the lives and loves of the opisthobranchs. These animals are commonly known as sea slugs, and include nudibranchs and sea hares. Members of the Phylum Mollusca, Class Gastropoda, Order Opisthobranchia, these colorful and captivating creatures are characterized by a single gill behind the heart. Footage includes predation, reproduction and other interesting behavior vividly captured in digital video. To learn more about Walter Marti and his work, please visit DiveFilm.com's Filmmakers Page.

The Cephalopods are Mollusks, like clams and nudibranchs. The Class Cephalopoda includes Octopuses, Squids, Cuttlefishes and Chambered Nautiluses. These are invertebrate marine animals that are intelligent and carnivorous. Cephalopoda means "head foot" and the group has the most complex brain of any invertebrate. Kathy and Mike Schnetzer's wonderful short film includes footage of numerous species of Cephalopods found off the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, including the deadly Bluering Octopus and the fascinating Wunderpus. Some great behavioral footage, including mating, hatching, and predation. This film was an official selection of the 2005 San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition, and one of the audience favorites. To learn more about Kathy and Mike Schnetzer's work and their Lionfish Films, LLC, please check out their website: www.lionfishfilms.com

Author David Helvarg discusses his latest book, "50 Ways To Save The Ocean," at a recent event at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography to kick off festivities celebrating the 5th Anniversary of the Scripps Center for Marine Diversity & Conservation (CMBC). Helvarg shares hope and practical suggestions for making a difference in the future of the ocean and the conservation of marine life. Digital video by Mary Lynn Price. To learn more about the Blue Frontier Campaign and the Seaweed Rebellion, visit BlueFront.org. To learn more about the 5th Anniversary and work of Scripps Center for Marine Diversity & Conservation, visit CMBC.ucsd.edu. To learn more about the work of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, visit Aquarium.ucsd.edu.

In this episode, we visit the ocean waters off the island of Beqa, Fiji. Fijian songs and meke (traditional dance) are interwoven with footage of some of Fiji's diverse marine life, where coral reefs, a variety of reef fish, and Bull Sharks make for great diving. In late 2005, the first of Fiji's planned Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were established by local villages. Director of Dive Operations for Aqua-Tek, Brandon Paige, discusses the importance of this conservation effort, and how it benefits both visiting divers and local villagers. Fiji’s Great Sea Reef is the third longest barrier reef in the world. It is hoped that by 2020, an MPA Network covering 30% of the country's waters will have been established. For more information on the locally managed MPAs of Fiji: www.WWFPacific.org.FJ

Historic images, a recent interview with Scripps Diving Officer Emeritus Jim Stewart, and modern ROV footage of the underwater site take us on an ocean journey through time to revisit the 1965 underwater habitat experiment called SeaLab II. Part of the Navy's "Man in the Sea" program, this 45 day project involved 3 teams of 10 Aquanauts, with each team living in the ocean habitat for 15 day periods at a depth of 205 feet. Scripps Institution of Oceanography divers worked as support for the SeaLab II project which took place not far off the end of Scripps Pier in La Jolla, California. A special thank you to Jim Stewart, Kevin Hardy, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Scripps Archives, Scripps Library, and Walt Mazzone.

Traveling to Thailand and the Burma Banks (off what is now called Myanmar), Steve Douglas introduces us to the diverse marine life of the tropical waters there. Footage includes beautiful Cuttlefish, Silvertip Reef Sharks, and resplendent Nudibranchs. We also are treated to a glimpse of the spiritual side of Thai culture and the arts. For more information on Steve and his travels, please visit his website, http://www.worldfilmsandtravel.com.

Scandinavian diver and underwater filmmaker, Hans Christian Andersen, takes us diving in his home waters off the coast of Skagen in northern Denmark. Here where the two seas, the Skagerak and the Kattegat, meet at Denmark's most northerly point, the diving can be most challenging for an underwater videographer. Hans meets the challenge, and presents some beautiful footage of ancient ship wrecks and interesting ocean creatures. To learn more about Hans, his underwater videography and his home land of Skagen, Denmark, please visit his website at www.SkawDiver.com.

Mick Hutchins films fluorescence in ocean creatures by using special lights and filters underwater. With these special lights we are able to view reef animals that are capable of giving off different light than the light they absorb. Narrated by Matthew Robinson. Technical assistance from Charlie Mazel, NightSea.com.

Pioneer underwater cinematographer Chuck Nicklin describes diving with the strange ocean creatures recently encountered in the Lembeh Straits of Indonesia. Often referred to as "muck diving," exploring the relatively shallow near-shore waters off Indonesia's volcanic islands rewards divers with unusual creature encounters. This episode features High Definition Video Footage by Mary Lynn Price and Chuck Nicklin.

In this episode, John Williams of Still Hope Productions. Inc., uses beautiful underwater video of amazing ocean creatures to tell the story of the seasonal changes underwater and the importance of plankton as the basis of the food web. Almost all of the underwater footage in this video is from Bainbridge Island, Washington, U.S.A. John F. Williams, founder and President of Still Hope Productions Inc., began in 2000 to create underwater videos that would portray the marine environment as a part of our own backyard. During eighteen years as a sea-going scientific technician and fifteen years of SCUBA diving, John developed a deep concern for the way in which momentous decisions were being made about our marine resources. He decided to improve the decision making process by promoting marine education via his underwater videos. You can learn more about the entire DVD, as well as other recent works, by visiting his website at www.StillHopeProductions.com.