Dave Abbott - Project Coordinator

Dave is an experienced underwater cameraman and photographer with a degree in marine science, as well as being a qualified dive instructor and commercial skipper. Completing around 300 dives a year, he has dived and filmed around New Zealand and the Indo-pacific, as well as being involved in scientific diving and subtidal bio-surveys at some of New Zealand's marine reserves.

During 2000 Dave spent five months on the 'Starship Millennium Voyage' as underwater videographer, documenting isolated locations and exotic marine life of the Indopacific and writing a daily journal of the crew's experiences for the expedition ship's interactive website. On this leg of the voyage Dave dived in some of the richest waters (in terms of biodiversity) on the planet; - including Papua New Guinea, Palau, Yap, the Philippines, Sulawesi and Komodo.

In 2001 he completed a degree in marine biology, and now splits his time between filming marine life, working on marine research projects for 'Eye on the Sea', writing articles and dive-guiding.

With a passionate interest in marine life and ecology and a strong commitment to sharing the underwater world with as many people as possible, Dave is focussed on using contemporary media (Internet and digital video) to make the underwater world accessible and understandable to the 'untrained' layperson.

Over the past few years he has captured footage of marine life as diverse as Seahorses and Sunfish, filmed reef sharks in the tropics and Bronze whaler sharks in temperate waters, captured images from tiny mysiid shrimps swarming in their millions to huge Manta rays and even Orca, -and there is more to come..

Dave has been assisted by several volunteers including Jess Rousseau, who shares his passion for marine life and the underwater world and is a keen naturalist and diver. In addition to Eye on the Sea projects/ photography Jess has assisted Dave with subtidal bio-surveys of marine reserves, organisation of 'Eye on the Sea's' DV footage, slide cataloguing, trip planning and all the other things that go with a project of this nature.

Dave is presently based in Northland New Zealand where he is able to dive and film for Eye on the Sea’s projects on a regular basis at one of the country's most prolific and dynamic diving locations, the Poor Knights Islands…usually onboard Poor Knights Liveaboards charter vessel ‘Norseman’. Dave brings a unique blend of knowledge, passion, skills and commitment to 'Eye on the Sea's goals of promoting marine environmental awareness and information sharing.

When not underwater, Dave enjoys windsurfing, sea kayaking, mountain-biking, snowboarding, surfing and rock climbing, and has a strong background in multisports, having competed in some of the toughest adventure races in New Zealand including the Coast to Coast Longest Day, Southern Traverse, and the 2446 km/ 22 day Xerox Challenge, the longest race of its kind in the world