EMAIL ALEX

Dr Alex Antoniou
SRI Scientist

Director of Field Operations, Shark Research Institute

Dr. Antoniou joined SRI in 1997, when he established a field station in Utila, Honduras.  This began the satellite tagging of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) in the Caribbean.  On October 28, 1999, as Director of Field Operations for SRI, Alex met with 50 government officials in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to request protection for whale sharks in their waters. Officials from the Navy, Department of Tourism, Biodiversity, Marine Fisheries and the Department of Agriculture attended the presentation.  After reviewing data provided by SRI, the Honduran government decreed the whale shark a protected species in their territorial waters with severe penalties for violators. With passage of this legislation, Honduras became the first nation in the Caribbean to protect whale sharks.

In November 2002, Alex was one of two observers from SRI at CITES COP12. As members of the Species Survival Network (SSN), a coalition of more than 60 NGOs, he pooled data and resources with other conservation organizations from around the world working toward the same goals, becoming a very focused and powerful lobby.  When institutions, organizations and governments work together, focusing on a common objective, it is possible to achieve significant results within a very short span of time.  Through such cooperative action, CITES Appendix II listings for whale sharks and basking sharks were finally achieved.

He has since established shark research programs La Paz, Mexico, the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, and most recently, at Cocos Island, Costa Rica.  Alex is an avid underwater videographer and is passionate about saving sharks around the world.

EMAIL MARK

Major Mark Foster
Expedition Doctor

Major Mark Foster is 37 and has been diving since he was 12 years old. A BSAC Advanced Instructor and PADI Dive Master, he currently runs the training at Gibraltar Barracks Sub-Aqua Club. He also heads the Army Medical Services Diving Association, which is in its infancy. He has logged 1100 dives and been a SADS since 1992. Having dived all over the world, he has had numerous close encounters with sharks, including Great Whites off Dyer Island (South Africa) and Tiger Sharks in the Pacific. He specialises in filming his experiences and has a catalogue of expedition DVDs to his credit. As a doctor, Mark is trained in diving medicine and is currently training as a Surgeon in Burns & Plastics in Bristol.

EMAIL SIMON

Lieutenant Commander Simon Fleisher

Lieutenant Commander Simon Fleisher has been diving since 1990 and qualified as an RN Ship’s Diving Officer in 1993. He is a BSAC Advanced Diver with additional qualifications including IANTD Advanced Nitrox and BSAC Extended Range Diving. A member of the Portsmouth (East) RN Sub Aqua Club, his previous military expeditions have included Scapa Flow, Gibraltar, Ascension Island and Bikini Atoll as a member of the Exercise Saratoga Crossroads team in 1999.  Previously the MEO of HMS LANCASTER, he now instructs NBCD at PHOENIX based in Whale Island, Portsmouth, and other interests include mountain biking and wind surfing.

EMAIL STUART

Stuart Edmondson

Squadron Leader Stuart Edmondson

Squadron Leader Stuart Edmondson is 30 years old and started his interest in diving whilst at University. He has dived all around the world, including a military expedition to Ascension Island where he assisted in the tagging of Hawksbill Turtles. Sqn Ldr Edmondson currently works at RAF Coningsby, leading the Headquarters Strike Command engineering & logistics management team for the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. He is a member of the RAF swimming team and also enjoys rowing, mountain biking, skiing/boarding and the odd triathlon.

EMAIL MARK

Flight Lieutenant Mark Tillyard

Flight Lieutenant Mark Tillyard has been diving since 1994 and logged 230 dives, mostly off the south coast of England. He has also dived in the Mediterranean and around Ascension Island on military expeditions; however, Jurassic Shark will be his first involvement in scientific research. He is a BSAC Advanced Instructor who also enjoys hill walking and sailing. He currently works at RAF Coningsby, leading a small team of specialists undertaking engineering investigation work on Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.

EMAIL KENNY

Warrant Officer 1 Kenny McDonald

WO1 Kenny McDonald has been diving since 1990.  He is a BSAC First Class Diver, BSAC Instructor, PADI Staff Instructor and Joint Services Sub-Aqua Diving Supervisor (SADS) with over 800 logged dives.  Additional qualifications include Advanced Nitrox and Extended Range Diving.  He is currently the Training Officer for the Abbey Wood SAC. Kenny has been involved in numerous military expeditions around the world.  He currently works as the Training Analyst within the FRES IPT at MOD Abbey Wood, Bristol, which sometimes interferes with his diving.

EMAIL COLIN

Warrant Officer 1 Colin Bartholomew

WO1 Colin Bartholomew is 37 years old and has been diving since 2003. He is a BSAC Dive Leader, Diver Coxswain and PADI Nitrox Diver with over 100 logged dives. An avid diver of the south coast of England with the Bovington SAC, he has participated on a number of military diving expeditions both in the UK and beyond. His parent unit is the Light Dragoons but he currently works at the Armoured Trials and Development Unit (ATDU), Dorset, as a Trials Officer.

EMAIL GARETH

Sgt Gareth Thomas

Sgt Gareth Thomas is 39 years old and started diving at the age of 12 in his hometown of New Quay in Wales.  Since then he has dived his way around the world notching up over 3000 military and civilian dives.  After joining the Royal Marines in 1984, he quickly qualified as a RM Ship’s Diver; becoming a Ship’s Diving Supervisor in 2003.  He is also a SADS, BSAC Advanced Instructor, BSAC O2 Instructor, BSAC Diver Cox’n Assessor, BSAC PRM instructor, RYA Advanced Powerboat Instructor and RYA Yachtmaster (power and sail).  On the technical side, he is a qualified in extended range diving, TRIMIX, Semi-Closed Circuit Re-Breathers and Closed Circuit Re-breathers.  His other hobbies include skiing and sailing.  He is currently serving with UKLF CSG.

EMAIL STEVE

Petty Officer Stephen Paris-Hunter FRGS

Petty Officer Stephen Paris-Hunter joined the Navy in July 1988 at the age of 19 years old and started diving the following year.  In 1991 he became qualified as a ship diver and is currently an active member of HMS Endurance’s diving team.  In 2001 he did a dive in the Antarctic, which was recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records as the furthest dive south of the equator. 

He is a BSAC Advanced Diver and has participated in 16 diving expeditions.  These include locations such as the Pitcairn Islands, Scapa Flow, South Africa, Normandy, and Belize to name but a few.  To date he has logged well over 1000 dives.  He became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 2005.

EMAIL NICK

Corporal Nick Badham

Corporal Nik Badham is 29 years old and has been diving since 1999. He is a British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) Advanced Diver, Open Water Instructor and diver Cox'n with over 300 logged dives covering a broad spectrum of locations and conditions. He has organised numerous UK based Joint Service expeditions and has organised and attended several Joint Service overseas expeditions. He is the Training Officer for RAF Cottesmore Sub Aqua Club which has won the RAF Sub-Aqua Associations Daryl Stinton Trophy for the past 3 years and was awarded the RAF Cottesmore Diver of the Year trophy in 2005. Corporal Badham is currently employed as part of the Joint Repair Organisation in the Harrier Structures Flight at RAF Cottesmore.

EMAIL KELVIN

Lance Corporal Kelvin Prevett
Expedition Webmaster

Lance Corporal Kelvin Prevett is 35 years old and has been diving since 1999. He is a British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) Advanced Diver, CMAS Three Star Diver and an Open Water Instructor (OWI) with BSAC. He has also recently passed the TDI - Advanced Nitrox and Decompresson course with DeepTech; Cavern and Trimix Diver to follow. A qualified repair technician for Apeks Marine Equipment and he is a REME metalsmith in the TA; currently works as a Workstream Leader (Civil Servant) within the Vehicle Category Management Team (VCMT) at the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Andover. He is also the webmaster for the Army Sub-Aqua Diving Association.

EMAIL DANIEL

Able Rating Daniel Evans

Able Rating Dan Evans is 23 years old and has been diving since 1994. He is a PADI Divemaster and has logged over 300 dives. Most of his early diving was in fresh water across the Lake District, although this was put in perspective by a visit to the Red Sea in 2002. Since then he has realised that there really is sea life outside of the dark depths of Lake Coniston and now carries out most of his diving abroad. Dan has no scientific experience but is keenly interested in shark research. He is employed as a Writer for the Royal Navy’s Devonport Flotilla.