Pioneer shark expert Ron Taylor dies

Updated

Australian marine conservation pioneer and renowned shark expert Ron Taylor has died at the age of 78.

Mr Taylor suffered myeloid leukaemia for two years and died peacefully on Sunday morning at a private hospital near his Sydney home.

Mr Taylor and his wife Valerie are regarded worldwide for their marine conservation work and their groundbreaking marine documentaries.

A Member of the Order of Australia, Mr Taylor first became fascinated with marine life in the 1950s as a spear fisherman, but later decided to "hunt with a camera" instead of a spear.

He was the first photographer to capture images of a great white shark underwater without the protection of a diving cage.

The Taylors are regarded as pioneers in underwater cinematography, and produced some of the very earliest underwater footage of great white sharks.

Crowned Australia's spearfishing champion several times, Mr Taylor turned his attention to conservation after a life-changing revelation during a spearfishing competition.

Mr Taylor told the ABC's Talking Heads program in 2005 that giving up the sport was the best thing that he had ever done.

"I just thought, 'What am I doing down here killing these poor, defenceless marine creatures?' he said.

"So I just packed up, went home - didn't even weigh my fish in - and never went back to another spearfishing competition.

"At the same time I was doing my photography. I was trying to get close to the fish to capture beautiful images with a still camera and a movie camera. And then on the weekend I'd go out and start killing them and that just didn't - that was wrong.

A pioneer and passionate advocate for preserving life in the oceans. An inspirational individual. RIP. Stuart Grant via Facebook

"Now I hunt with my movie camera or video camera and it's the same sense of achievement to get close to a marine creature and capture some behaviour, or perhaps a shark - a dangerous looking shark."

Helping Hollywood

Such was the Taylors' expertise that they were called on to share their craft with Hollywood producers, most notably on the blockbuster shark film Jaws.

Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg asked the couple to help with the live-shark sequences in the film.

The movie terrified swimmers and elevated the great white above all others sharks as the most feared ocean predator, something Mr Taylor credited with doing "a lot of damage to sharks."

"People went out with a vendetta to kill sharks because they believed that sharks were really like that," he said.

"But in fact Jaws was just a fictional film. Valerie and I got a lot of flack because we were involved in a film which stopped a lot of people learning to dive."

Despite being bitten by sharks on several occasions, Mr Taylor said he never entered the water with apprehension.

In the late 1970s he had a chainmail suit made that was designed to withstand shark attacks.

The suit was too small for Ron, so Valerie wore it instead. The suit proved effective, but the difficult part came in trying to prompt sharks into biting the chainmail.

Marine documentaries

The couple played a part in the production of scores of underwater documentaries over the years.

Mr Taylor told Talking Heads that he had been a fan of photography for as long as he could remember.

"I think maybe because my father was a photographer," he said.

He and his wife were a wonderful team. They taught me to wince when the words 'shark infested' were used. He will be missed.

Paul Hannah via Facebook

"When I went to work and became an apprentice, a friend had a 16mm movie camera. I built an underwater housing for that because at that time I'd taken up spear fishing and snorkelling and I became fascinated in the underwater world."

Ron and Valerie met in the late 1950s and bonded over their love of the ocean.

Valerie said when she first started going out with Ron she still had another boyfriend and that she had to choose between the two.

"I knew I wouldn't have much of a life with the other guy. He was a musician - he was brilliant. He was a wonderful man but I'm not musical at all," Valerie said.

"I was a pretty good diver and one day I said to Ron, 'I think you should marry me'. And he did."

The couple married in 1963 and have no children.

Topics: death, grief, shark, sydney-2000

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