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01/01/2007: "HIGH ADVENTURE DOWN UNDER ......Tropic Reef Seafari"
There was an Italian photographer, underwater, in the 1960's early 1970's who did interesting work. Roberto Merlo. It was borderline by today's standards.....(if viewed as natural history), yet in it's own way was an original art form.
Likewise the Italian magazine Mondo Sommerso, a large format marine publication that combined diving, fishing, spear fishing with boating, published material in this genre by Roberto Merlo often.
(Merlo was voted International Underwater Photographer of the Year by the film festival held at Santa Monica, California in the old days).
The magazine would run several pictures of the same subject, as viewed from different perspectives. Educational for us young underwater photographers, however few saw the magazine in Australia.
Spearing of manta rays, moray eels or anything was fair game but only in Mondo Sommerso. It encouraged others to follow this vandalistic attitude underwater as the pictures would be purchased.
The media ultimately taught us – indirectly. We’d to conform to market demands. In later years this became increasingly conservationist and natural history inspired. It was not always like this.
I helped organize the Mondo Sommerso assignment to Australia by arranging for a dive charter boat, Ron Isbell would be their guide aboard Sea Hunt.
They got plenty of good pictures with the world champion spearmen Marsimo Scaparti along yet were very disappointed.
The GBR had been "over-sold" to them in documentaries as being the greatest destination on earth and it simply did not live up to these expectations. Perhaps The Red Sea had spoiled them?
Tropic Reef Seafari did well as a traveling filmshow here in Australia. The tiger sharks were gaffed by professional gamefisherman deckhands while I was filming marlin sequences that were later sold to a major Hollywood movie requiring stock shots.
Underwater tiger shark feeding scenes were filmed with a pole camera. Unique even today with a dozen of these big sharks had a feast on a large black marlin.
The model is Jocelyn Edwards, a New Zealander who was the star of the film both above and underwater.
Her part-Chinese, part-Polynesian and European ancestry may be traceable to Taiwan, now considered the origin of these seafarers who colonized the Pacific Ocean especially the atolls beginning about 800 years ago.
