Years of stunning archive footage and new cinematic content make this a special celebration of the work of James Lea and the Save Our Seas Foundation. Great to see some of my special underwater captures from years gone by in this short film
I’m yet to see this film as it has not made it to Africa yet, was a privileged to spend 2 seasons on the high seas working with the legendary Hugh Pearson and a multi-talented international team of scientists and media human’s
On day one of the main shoot I crashed an Inspire 2 drone into the ocean at sunset which is a low point of my career. Made up for it later on getting the first ever footage of Blue whales in this region.
The area offshore of the Seychelles Plateau is largely unexplored by filmmakers, scientists and divers. Exploited by the purse seine tun fleets of European countries this vast watery wilderness is home to a huge diversity of marine mammals. Over the 5 weeks of shooting we made sightings of Blue whale, sperm whale, Brydes whale, orca, Short Finned Pilot whale, Rissos dolphin, Pigmy Sperm Whale, longmans beaked whale( a massive superpod on the surface), False killer whale, Pigmy Killer whale, Spinner dolphin, spotted dolphin, oceanic Bottle-nose dolphin and perhaps a few more assorted dolphins I’v forgotten about.
Humbling to scratch the surface of intelligent life in this blue wilderness.
I’m honored to have worked over 3 years on the great white/cape fur seal sequence filmed in South Africa. Using both drones and working underwater alongside a dedicated team of local and BBC production crew we documented the dramatic interactions between these animals, it was never quite clear who was in charge in this piece of ocean
The behavior seemed to shift over the 3 year period as the sharks become more seal shy and stayed away from the colony in favor of hunting small seals playing alone at the edges. Observing the behavior of the sharks unobtrusively from drones for many hours revealed animals sometimes slow and steady, seemly disinterested in the seals and sometimes in a ravenous frenzy. I few times the sharks even tried to eat cormorants no doubt mistaking them for something more meaty .
This behavior has only really appeared here over the last 6-8 years and this seal colony didn’t even exist 20 years ago, incredible to watch new behaviors appear as animals adapt to changing ocean conditions.
Watch part of the sequence below and catch the full story in Ep1 coast of BBC Planet Earth 3
Humpback Whales on Silver Banks in Dominican Republic
A shoot in my local waters for a Mazda campaign, full episode on Showmax.
I was lucky to work during Covid Lockdown in 2020. Strange times on earth. The beaches we closed, the ocean was off limits so we found some wildlife on the streets of Cape Town. A highlight for me was seeing a penguin and a porcupine emerge from the same street drain early one morning. I also got reported to the police buy a neighbor for being out on the streets during the lockdown, luckely I had enough permits and paperwork to confuse them. Some stunning stories in this program and most impressive not a single international flight was made in the making of this one hour David Attenbrough Narrated story on APPLE TV. As the global village goes local I hope that the Natural History film industry will slow down and take stock of what it means to tell sustainable stories in 2021.
Watch On Apple TV
I had the privilege to work on this ambitious multimedia project. Shot on the RED Monstro in 8K, it was an ambitious undertaking by visionary artist Maya de Almeida de Araujo. Catch the exhibit at the Oceanario de Lisboa.
We had some incredible moments filming in the offshore waters of the Azores, including befriending a juvenile sperm whale.
A recent trip to the Southern Cape in search of of the Southern Right Whales which visit these waters from thier summer feeding grounds down south. Its interesting that the animals on this day were clearly hugging the surf line even though the swell was quite big. Often the calves were on the inside too, perhaps a statergy to defend against potentual attaks from Great White sharks which are prevalent in the area?
My first voyage down South on the Pelagic Austailisand some of the most extreme diving I have done, floating in open ocean off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsular surrounded by patches of krill, seals, penguins, Antarctic cod with Fin whales lunge feeding through the krill balls, An epic adventure and an honor to assist UW Cine Dan Beecham and shoot additional camera for this program. We were likely the first humans to witness this spectacle underwater which is a rarity in the world today.
Mid October is traditionally end of the SE trade wind in the Seychelles, and thus we chose this time to do some exploration offshore of the Seychelles in search Sperm Whales. These animals are prolific in Mauritius and Sri Lanka and a whaling industry targeting them used to operate in main Islands of the Seychelles. A recent discovery of a floating dead adult, motivated me to organize a trip in search of an aggregation of these animals.
After some delays with our mothership the allocated 2 week trip was cut down to just 6 days on the water. Leaving Mahe to begin the search on the Amarantes Bank the weather was looking ideal.
Joining us on the trip was Fabrice Schnoller founder of the Darewin project who are doing fascinating research and education projects using VR and 360 sound experiences to unlock the mysteries of cetacean communication and instill a love of these animals in the public. www.darewin.org
Vincent Mahamadaly, www.geolab.re took time out from his underwater and terrestrial mapping day job to help out operating some new towed hydrophone equipment we were testing out on the trip.
To cut a long story short for the first 4 days we surveyed the numerous ares of suitable Sperm Whale habitat with little activity. The sea was rough, the ocean was quiet on the hydrophones and the most excitement was some brief in water encounters with a pod of Risso's Dolphins hunting Bonito and Yellowfin Tuna. 10 hours a day on the tenders nothing but Blue desert was breaking the most ardent of modern day whalers.
Day 5 dawned, my 32 birthday, jokes were cracked about 32 whales instead of candles and we headed off for another day on the water, this time back on the edges of the Mahe Plateau. After some early activity with some spinner Dolphins and tuna co-feeding we saw our first blow at around lunchtime in mirror calm seas. Fin Whales, a few feeding on scattered patches of krill on the 2000m mark. After a few brief in water passes we moved on as the afternoon was wearing on and we still had 60NM to cover to meet the mothership at our overnight spot.
Not a mile down the contour we came across more blows, Blue Whales, 4 animals were scattered feeding on patches of krill, unmistakable in their size this was a truly special animal to encounter. After unsuccessfully trying to get close to these animals in the water shot a few pics for ID and then headed off up the drop in search of Sperm Whales.
Not 5 miles after the Blues we saw a blow in the distance and stopped for a listen, the clicks were loud and numerous, Sperm Whales, a pod! The next 2 hours until sunset was pure magic, Sperm Whales were surfacing after a feed all over the place and a super-pod of spinner dolphins was charging around like crazy things. One brief in water encounter with a male Sperm at sunset sealed off the day. Running the 30nm back to the position of the mother ship in the dark across a glassy ocean we all savored the rewards of some hard days at sea. 32 Whales for my birthday!
The next day we headed back to the same area and were once again treated to cetacean AGM, 100s of pilot whales, pod of sperm whales and scatterd Fin and Blue whales still feeding on the scatters patches of krill. Once again in water encounters with the Sperms proved hard as they we feeding deep and only breathing up on the surface for short periods.
With our allotted time up we had to steam back to Mahe, although we had no really prolonged in water encounters this trip was a great proof of concept for future cetacean trips in the Oceanic waters of the Seychelles Islands.
Contributed Drone Cinematography and shot the BTS for Ep1 on this. When BP1 came out it redefined my imagination of what behavior and beauty were possible in the world. A long a winding road to work on PB2, ever grateful for he process of turning dream into reality.