Ron Taylor AM (1934–2012) was a marine conservationist and pioneer of underwater cinematography. A world and Australian spearfishing champion, he met Valerie Taylor, also a winner of several Australian spearfishing and scuba titles, in the late 1950s. They gave the sport away on realising that photographing sharks was a vastly more rewarding pursuit than killing them. The couple married in 1963, by which time their first major documentary The Shark Hunters had been sold to Australian and American television. They formed their own production company in 1969, the year they were consultants for the US feature film Blue Water, White Death. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s they made and provided footage for numerous films and television programs, among them Wild, Wild World of Animals (1973–78) and Blue Wilderness (1992); and in 1974 they filmed the live shark underwater scenes for the Steven Spielberg blockbuster Jaws. Both were also vigorous and successful campaigners for marine conservation legislation; and the recipients of many prestigious awards for environmental work and underwater photography, their images appearing in magazines such as National Geographic and Time. Ron died from myeloid leukaemia in 2012.
