Valerie Taylor is a pioneering diver, shark advocate, conservationist and artist. An acclaimed spear fisher, she met her husband Ron through this sport and together they became a formidable team and pioneers of skindiving, underwater photography and cinematography. They were the first to film great white sharks without the protection of a cage and made countless shark films, including Blue Water, White Death, which led to their work with Steven Spielberg on Jaws. A renowned conservationist, Valerie has compaigned for the protection of Australia's wild oceans, islands and reefs including the Great Barrier Reef before it was given World Heritage status. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 2003 for her conservation efforts. Valerie lives in Sydney and, at 83, is still diving and still fighting for us to save our oceans.
Ben Mckelvey is an author, journalist and editor. Ben's books have won the Australian Independent Book Award for non-fiction, an Australian Book Industry Award and the Nib Military History Prize and they have been shortlisted in the Victorian and Queensland Premier's Literary Awards and for the Les Carlyon Literary Prize. Ben has been the editor of Mr Jones, Sports&Style and Juice magazines and worked at the Sydney Morning Herald as a Senior Feature Writer. As a freelance writer, Ben has been embedded with the ADF in East Timor and Iraq, and has worked independently in Iran, Syria and Afghanistan.
