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20/12/2006: "FATHOM MAGAZINE ..... Skindiving in Australia"

There was a ridiculous situation in 1971. Dive shop owners pretended to customers that sharks would not bite divers.

Diver publications were discouraged from publishing shark pictures by their advertisers, especially in USA.

Fathom helped change all that with this, the second issue the most popular of all.

Tabloid newspapers serialised these shark pictures and informative text over several editions. ABC TV's GTK (a 6pm youth show) did an interview showing actual fathom pages. The promotion boosted future sales, a USA distributor got involved with subscriptions and predicted amazing sales.

It would not happen. Magazine distribution in USA was controlled by powerful forces unlike anything we knew of at home.