MEMBERS IN THE NEWS – 2015

PATTI GROSS
will be inducted into the Women’s Diving Hall of fame in April 2016. Patti also contributed to a written piece featured in ChairLights, the newsletter of the Keys Jewish Center’s March 2015 publication, Page 35.

ANN CABOT
had an article on Raja Ampat village homestays featured in September’s Inter-national Travel News magazine.

TOM HAYWARD
has an article published in issue #68 of X-Ray Magazine on Florida’s Black Water Diving.

LINDA IANNIELLO
has an article published in UW Photography Guide on “How To Find Nudibranchs”.

LUREEN FERRETTI
NIKOLE ORDWAY
KIMBERLY PORTER
MONICA SHANDEL
JASON SPITZ
CHAD WILLIAMS
placed in the BugFest Photo Contest at Lauderdale-by-the Sea.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
was published in ScubaShooters’ May, June and July online magazines.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
was inducted into the Ocean Artists Society at the end of May.

ANN CABOT
will be identifying corals and algae in photographs taken by NOAA divers in American Samoa. Looking forward to your stories when you return Ann!

NIKOLE ORDWAY
of Force-E Divers was featured in the May issue of the local paper of the island of Tobago for the training she provided with Environmental Research Institute Charlottesville (ERIC). Nikole taught members of the local community to perform Reef Check surveys.

LUREEN FERRETTI
won a “Highly Honored” place in the Alert Diver Ocean Views 2015 contest for her image of mating seahorses at Blue Heron Bridge.

LINDA IANNIELLO
was named Dive Photo Guide’s Photographer of the Week on April 24, 2015.

SAMANTHA MCNEAR
and her classmates presented their study “Hawaiian Monk Seals: Record of Environmental Influence in Endangered Species” at the Smithsonian Institution and to members of the Marine Mammal Commission in Washing-ton, D.C., and Bethesda, MD March 26-27, 2015.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
was an invited guest speaker at the 2015 Asia Dive Expo in Singapore.

LEE BURGHARD
won first place in the 2015 Our Word Underwater Photo & Video Competition for his film “My Sanctuary.” See Lee’s film here.

LEE BURGHARD
Lee’s film “My Sanctuary” was also an official selection for the 2015 Beneath the Waves Festival.

SHEN COLLAZO
WAYNE MACWILLIAMS
JASON SPITZ
Placed in the Blue Wild Underwater Photography Contest. Shen Collazo won 1st place in WideAngle,
Wayne MacWilliams won 1st place in Macro, and Jason Spitz followed with a 2nd place finish in Macro.

GUILLAUME BAUCH
had work featured in the February issue of a German scuba diving magazine, Unterwasser. The images featured wrecks in the Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach area.

GUILLAUME BAUCH
won 2nd place in Florida International University’s Photo Contest for his photograph of a Great Hammerhead taken in Bimini.

JUDY TOWNSEND
HEIDI THORICT
MIKE MILLER
DIANE RANDOLPH
placed In the Florida Skin Divers Association UW Photo and Video Contest.

GUILLAUME BACH
have a photograph from Florida Springs fea-tured by PADI on the PADI website in the “Dive Across America” section.

WALT STEARNS
will have a 15-page feature spread in issue #68 of Xray Magazine on Florida’s Palm Beaches.

WAYNE MACWILLIAMS
has several images being featured in upcoming publications: Under-water Journal 3Q and Sport Diver Magazine.

WAYNE MACWILLIAMS
has an image that received an honorable mention in the upcoming September/October issue of Scuba Diving Magazine.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
will have images featured at the DRT Show Phillippines.

CHRIS GUG
won the Award of Outstanding Achievement at the Glencoe Art Festival.

JUDY TOWNSEND
had a landscape photograph from travel to Alaska published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel at the end of June.

SHARON BARON
CAROL SCHURTZ
RAY SCHREIBER
placed in the Underwater Digital Fiesta 2015 contest. Sharon Baron won 3rd place, Carol Schurtz and Ray Schreiber won Honorable mentions.

JUDY TOWNSEND
placed 3rd in Fish or Marine Animal Portrait in the 2015 RSMAS Photo Contest.

TONY BARROS
won 1st place Macro in the 2015 RSMAS Photo Contest.

AMANDA COTTON
joined the 2015 Asia Dive Expo as the newest inductee to the Women Divers Hall of Fame while also representing the Explorers Club and Ocean Artists Society.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
had an article about photography at the Blue Heron Bridge published in Underwater Photography Guide.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
JUDY TOWNSEND
DIANE RANDOLPH
Placed in the “Beneath the Sea” photo contest. Suzan Meldonian won 1st place in the “Behavior” category, Judy Townsend won 2nd place in the “Behavior” category, and Diane Randolph won 2nd place in the 60 second video category and 2nd place in the “International Film” category. See the winning images here.

ANNE DUPONT
presented “Sea Shells and Sea Slugs” to the Marco Island Shell Club on March 5th.

PHIL RUDIN
published a review on the Fantasea FRX100 III in the March/April issue of UWP magazine’s online edition.

BERND MEIER
was featured in the December 2014 issue of “Sport Diving” Magazine for reporting a rare find in the Philippines. Bernd photographed an octocoral tentatively identified as Efflatounaria, which looks quite similar to a nudibranch.

WALT STEARNS
Walt’s article on wide-angle photography (“Getting the Big Picture”) was featured in the January/February 2015 issue of “Depth Magazine.”

JASON SPITZ
was the January photo contest winner for E-current, the publication of the Coral Reef Alliance.

MARSHA STAMATAKIS
placed first in the 2014 photo contest at Captain Don’s Habitat Bonaire for her image of a frogfish.

BILL WILLIAMS
got 6th place overall in the “Topside” category in Reef Photo’s “Focus Grand Cayman” trip.

CHAD WILLIAMS
took 3rd place overall, and 1st place in both the video and “Topside” categories, and 2nd place in the highly contested macro division, in Reef Photo’s “Focus Grand Cayman” trip.

AMANDA COTTON
has an article published in issue #68 of X-Ray Magazine on Florida Springs.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
placed third in the monthly Facebook macro photo contest for one of her black water dive images..

SUZAN MELDONIAN
had an image place in the Nature Conservancy’s Top 100 Contest.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
image of a yellowhead jawfish was displayed as part of the digital display at the Louvre celebrating the Exposure Award on July 13, 2015.

ANGELA SMITH
will have her expedition photography used in the “Explore the Ocean” project founded by Sylvia Earle and Google Ocean.

JUDY TOWNSEND
had winning photo in the 2015 RSMAS Photo Contest published in the Miami Herald. Winning photos will be on display in a gallery in Miami.

SHARON BARON
CAROL SCHURTZ
In the Reef Photo & Video “Sudden Depth” Fluorescence Imaging Contest: Sharon Baron won 1st Place. Carol Schurtz won 3rd Place.

SUSAN MELDONIAN
was published in the May issue of Scuba Shooters.net magazine. Suzan also had an article published in UnderwaterPhotographyguide.com.

CHRIS GUG
was named “Professional Winner” for his image of a double-crested cormorant in the 2015 Audubon Photography Awards.

CHRIS GUG
gave an interview about his photographic career entitled “Talking Animals” with a Tampa NPR station on April 15.

SHANA PHELAN
of Pura Vida Divers was appointed to the Artificial Reef & Estuarine Enhance-ment Committee by the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners.

RICHARD LADISKY
presented three seminars at Beneath the Sea, in NJ, the weekend of March 28-29. It marked the first time that they have accepted a Part 1 and a Part 2 to the same show. The titles were “Tubbataha Reef Part 1, Part 2, and the third was Adventure to Malapascua Island.

CHRIS GUG
ANGELA SMITH
will be inducted to the Ocean Artists Society, a conservation minded group of professional marine artists, founded by Wyland, Guy Harvey and Bob Talbot.

ALAN EGAN’S
photography accompanied a Miami Herald article on manatees, visible here. Marsha and Paul Stamatakis were quoted in the story that ran on February 18.

WAYNE MACWILLIAMS
had three images published in the January/February edition of Scuba Diving Top 100 magazine. See page 2 for mating hamlets and cowfish, and page 32 for goliath groupers.

ANNE DUPONT
spoke at Loxahatchee River Center in Jupiter, FL on December 5, 2014. Anne’s talk, and underwater photography lecture entitled “Marine life found in Lake Worth Lagoon” was well received by approximately 100 people.

SUZAN MELDONIAN
was featured in UnderwaterPhotography.com’s weekly hotshot status for the week 51: December 28, 2014.

2014 ARCHIVES