Still Sharky After All These Years

Ron and Valerie Taylor just celebrated more than 40 years of swimming with sharks.

The pair, aged 74 and 71, met as members of a spearfishing club in Sydney but decided to stop hunting fish in the 1960s and turned to conservation instead.

They began by making a series of ground-breaking films showing underwater life, and were the first people to film great white sharks without using a cage. Some of their most famous footage was used by Steven Spielberg in the movie JAWS.

But after Valerie had a close call with a shark, Ron decided to design a chain mail diving suit. When the suit ended up being too small for him, his wife volunteered to test it.

The pair have won dozens of awards and Valerie was made an honorary member of the Order of the Golden Ark in recognition of her conservation work.

Here’s to many more sharks!

[source]