Member Lecture: Shipwreck – Underwater with Nick Caloyianis

Dive into February with award winning producer, director and diver, Nick Calyonis. Nick will share his behind-the-scenes experiences while filming some of the world’s most famous shipwrecks including, the Spanish Galleon treasure fleet of 1622; the Swedish Warships, Vasa and the Kronan; German U-boats, and, the luxury liner, Andrea Doria.

This lecture is being presented in Partnership with Lancaster SCUBA.

About Nick Calyonis

Director/Producer, Photographer & Naturalist

Nick graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from the University of Maryland in 1973, and thereafter began his Post-graduate work with Eugenie Clark, Ph.D.. In 1974 he was awarded his first grant to study and film “sleeping” shark behavior with Eugenie off Isla Mujeres, Mexico. During his research there, he befriended a renowned filmmaker, Ramon Bravo, who taught him the finer aspects of filming marine life and wild pelagic sharks for documentaries and Hollywood. These initial experiences would later inspire Nick in his career as an extraordinary underwater filmmaker.

Over a span of 30 years, Nick’s artistry has been honored with numerous awards, including an Oscar, Primetime Emmys and a NOGI in the Arts. He has directed and produced films for National Geographic and Discovery Channels, has filmed for IMAX and Hollywood screens and still continues to collaborate with marine scientists not only to record their work, but to help them make their groundbreaking discoveries. He was the first to film the bizzare Greenland shark in Arctic waters. At the time (1995), not much was known about this polar creature. Also an accomplished underwater still photographer, Nick’s images have appeared in hundreds of national and international publications and is listed as co-author of a highly popular summer read, “The Shark Handbook”, by Greg Skomal, Ph.D., 1st edition.

An avid conservationist, Nick has used his visuals to help lobby for the protection of sharks, the creation of undersea parks (e.g. Ras Mohammed Park in the Red Sea), as well as sanctuaries (for nurse shark mating areas in the Dry Tortugas). Additionally, Nick’s company has been instrumental in raising awareness and much needed funding (for the highly successful Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative) to help restore marine habitats in denuded areas by the placement of low-lying cleaned structures in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean waters. More recently, his visuals have helped raise awareness for much needed Federal protection of vital natural reefs, located in our mid-Atlantic waters offshore.