Scuba Diver Ocean Planet Issue 2/2016 | Page 107

The Hans Hass Fifty Fathoms
Award Committee

CHAIRMAN
The Honorable
Krov Menuhin (Australia)
Krov is internationally known for his lengthy
career in underwater film and photography,
working with the BBC and Channel 4 in
the UK, and 25 years with the French
programme Ushuaia, among others. His
diving background includes both military
and commercial diving and he is the author
of numerous maritime articles published
internationally. He was a longtime friend of
Professor Hass, who personally appointed
him as Chairman of the Committee.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Leslie Leaney (England)
The founder of the Hans Hass Fifty
Fathoms Award and one of the industry’s
few recognised diving historians, Leslie
learnt to dive in Singapore in 1969. In 1992
he co-founded the Historical Diving Society
USA and in 1993, he founded the Journal of
Diving History. The recipient of numerous
industry awards for his historical work, he
was inducted into the International Scuba
Diving Hall of Fame in 2012.

DIRECTOR
Ernest Brooks II (USA)

3
diving documentary was Water World, which
he produced in 1954 and screened to amazed
audiences as he toured America giving a live
narration of the footage.
His adventures led him to th e Bahamas
where from 1954 to 1958 he owned
and operated a diving charter business,
developing what may well be the first
liveaboard operation. In 1959 he was part of
an archaeological diving team working off the
coast of Turkey that found what was, at the
time, the oldest known shipwreck. The vessel
was from the Bronze Age and estimated to be
built around 1300 BC. From this adventure he
produced another lecture film titled 3,000 Years
Beneath the Sea.
In 1965 he relocated his family to Tahiti for
a year of diving, which produced a National

2. Stan, Al and Chuck

on location in the
British Virgin Islands
for The Deep, 1976
Image courtesy
Bret Gilliam

As the owner of the Brooks Institute of
Photography, Ernie pioneered course-taught
underwater photography. His extensive
portfolio was highlighted in his book, Silver
Seas, and his work is displayed in galleries
and museums around the globe. Following
the art of black and white underwater
photography established by Professor Hass,
Ernie was the recipient of the first Hans Hass
Fifty Fathoms Award.

3. Stan in his garage in
Maine, USA, 2008
© Bret Gilliam
4. The Blue Water,
White Death gang
(L–R): Rodney Fox,
Stan Waterman, Valerie
and Ron Taylor; Stan is
holding the Hans Hass
Fifty Fathoms Award
© Eduardo Grubicy.
All Rights Reserved

DIRECTOR
Laurent Ballesta (France)
As an accomplished marine biologist and
underwater filmmaker and photographer,
Laurent has spent his career pushing
the boundaries of diving. He rose to
international acclaim and attention with his
series of dives past 100 metres and was the
first diver to film the coelacanth, the living
fossil, in its deep natural habitat. He was
the recipient of the 2013 Hans Hass Fifty
Fathoms Award.