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2006 Press Releases
THE 2006 NOGI AWARDS GALA IN ORLANDO ON NOVEMBER 9 WILL BE A STAR STUDDED EVENT
The 2006 NOGI Awards Gala will take place at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida on November 9, from 6:00 PM until 10:00 PM. The NOGI Awards Gala, which draws the diving industry elite, is being presented this year by The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences in Association with the Wyland Foundation, the Underwater Society of America and the Women Divers Hall of Fame.
The NOGI Awards Gala will include an open bar (compliments of Alese and Mort Pechter), gourmet cocktail reception, banquet, the NOGI Awards presentation, the Wyland ICON Award presentation, the Zale Parry Scholarship Recipient presentation, and a Silent Auction conducted by the Women Divers Hall of Fame. Noted marine artist, Wyland, will also be painting on stage and conducting a live auction of his work. Ernie Brooks will be the Gala Emcee.
NOGI Award Gala attendees will receive complimentary gifts and a discount on group tickets to the DEMA party the following evening.
This years NOGI Award Recipients are:
Peter Benchley (Arts)
Dr. Richard Pyle (Science)
Bob Evans (Sports and Education)
Lee Selisky (Distinguished Service).
The Wyland ICON Award Recipients are Stan Waterman, Ernie Brooks, and renowned environmental pioneer, Rachel Carson.
Last years NOGI Awards Gala was a sellout, so book your reservations early! Checks or credit card orders for the NOGI Awards Gala ($100.00 per person /$120 at the door) can be placed with AUAS Comptroller, Mike Gower at: 164 N Bascom Ave., Suite B, San Jose, CA95128 , Phone (408) 286-8840 Email: Mike.Gower@auas-nogi.org.
2005 Press Releases
PETER BENCHLEY, DR. RICHARD PYLE, BOB EVANS AND LEE SELISKY SELECTED FOR 2005 NOGI AWARDS
The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS) has announced its 2005 Recipients of the NOGI Award: Peter Benchley (Arts) Dr. Richard Pyle (Science), Bob Evans (Sports and Education) and Lee Selisky (Distinguished Service).
The NOGI Award was created in the 1950s and it is the oldest and most prestigious award in the diving industry. Over the last five decades, the NOGI has been bestowed on a select cadre of divers who rank at the top of their field in Arts, Science, Sports and Education and Distinguished service. NOGI Recipients are selected by their peers and the roster of NOGI Recipients is a virtual "Who's Who" in diving.
The NOGI Awards are administered by the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS). Each NOGI is a large statuette which resembles the Hollywood Oscar statuette, thus earning it the title, "the Academy Award of Diving."
The 2004 NOGI Recipients will be presented with their statuettes at the annual NOGI Awards Dinner in Orlando in November, 2006. AUAS President, Hillary Viders, Ph.D., remarked, "the 2005 NOGI Recipients are outstanding individuals who have made major contributions to the world of diving and undersea science. Their selection reflects the high standards upheld by The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences.”
Peter Benchley is world-renowned as the author of “JAWS,” a best selling novel that was made into one of the largest Hollywood blockbuster movies in history. But, several years before he wrote “JAWS.” Benchley had already established himself as a talented writer, with freelance articles for National Geographic Magazine. His first piece was about Nantucket Island, and in the ensuing decades he has written more than a dozen stores for the magazine about everything from New Zealand to Great White sharks, from Galapagos Islands to the underwater world of New Guinea. He has also written for National Geographic Traveler and one of his recent stories won the 2003 Lowell Thomas Gold award for adventure – travel writing for the Society of American Travel Writers.
From his novels about the sea, Benchley has been called “the preeminent mythologist of our time.” He has appeared in, hosted and written and or narrated dozens of television documentaries about the sea, including the April, 2000 two hour National Geographic Explorer special, “Great White, Deep Trouble. ”
In addition to his best selling novels (such as, “The Deep,” “Beast”, and “Shark Trouble”) and his TV documentaries, Benchley has written or co-written several screenplays and televisions pilots, and has created two television series, “Peter Bentley’s Amazon” and (in collaboration) “Dolphin Cover.” His many stores and articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines all over the world.
For the past several years Benchley has been a full time marine conservationist, traveling the world and speaking against such odious practices as shark fining and drift net fishing. He is currently an executive producer and host of the World of Water film series that produces, in partnership with the New England Aquarium, short films aimed at entertaining and educating children about the sea. Benchley is a member of the National Board of Environmental Defense.
Dr. Richard Pyle was born and raised in Hawaii, where his passion for “all things fish” began at a very early age. He set up his first aquarium when he was five years old, and started scuba diving when he was thirteen. By the time he was nineteen, he wound up living in Palau where his passion for discovering new fishes lured him into deep water, resulting in a crippling case of decompression sickness while diving with world-renown ichthyologist John “Jack” Randall. Jack then offered him a job in the fish collection of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu, where Richard continues to work nearly two decades later.
Earning his PhD under Jack’s tutelage, Richard’s passion for undersea exploration never waned. Determined to continue exploring of the coral reef “Twilight Zone” (200-500 feet deep) in a safe and responsible way, he was among the pioneers of modern Technical Diving in the late 1980’s. In 1994 he began as a test-diver for the prototype Cis-Lunar MK-4 closed-circuit rebreather, and has traveled the Pacific in search of new species of fishes on deep coral reefs – which he and his colleagues are discovering at a rate of eleven new species per hour of bottom time.
Richard has authored over a hundred scientific, technical, and popular articles and has been featured in dozens of documentary films (including the IMAX film, Coral-Reef Adventure). He was a founding member and is currently on the Board of Directors for the Association for Marine Exploration – a non-profit organization dedicated to conducting innovative scientific exploration using advanced diving equipment and techniques. In 2004, he was selected by Esquire magazine for the “Best and Brightest” issue, and was also recipient of the “GEnius Award” from General Electric to help support his research.
Bob Evans is Founder and President of Bob Evans Designs, Inc., the corporate entity behind Force Fin. He is a world class photographer, visionary, and noted inventor who has been awarded over 33 patents for his revolutionary fin designs, including fins that use lift as opposed to drag forces to propel a diver, fins that snap to increase diver efficiency and fins that are split. His Tan Delta Force Fin is part of the permanent collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art and along with his Extra Force Fin, is part of the collections of the Costume Institute of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bob’s diving career began in 1964 when he learned to free dive and purchased his first Nikonos. From 1966-73, he was employed by Dive AND Surf in Redondo Beach, California and was certified by Bob Meistrell, County of Los Angeles Instructor No. 1. In 1967, he was trained as a commercial diver and over the years, he has made over 850 dives documenting life below platforms in Santa Barbara Channel under contracts with Exxon, Shell Oil Company, Atlantic Richfield, Union Oil, Western Oil & Gas, and American Petroleum Institute. As a photographer he is best known for his Channel Islands Collection, which includes images he took on and in the waters surrounding the California Channel Islands.
Bob Evans is an original SSI Platinum Pro 5000. He was awarded an Honorary Masters of Science by the Trustees of his alma mater, Brooks Institute of Photography for extraordinary contributions to art, science and photography. Evans' photography has appeared in over 300 publications including Time, Life, and National Geographic. He has published two books, "The Living World of the Reef" and "The Channel Islands Collection."
Bob Evans has designed underwater camera housings for time-lapse systems, camera towing systems and a buoy system to carry cameras to preset depths. He was Chief Photographer of the SCCWRPP's study of artificial reefs managed by Willard Bascom and John Isaacs of Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Atlantic Richfield Foundation funded Evans' productions for the Cabrillo Marine Museum. Santa Barbara's Sea Center opened with an exhibit of his photographic work. In the 1980's, Evans received a research grant from Kennedy Foundation to study the feasibility of harvesting and canning mussels from the offshore oil platforms of the Santa Barbara Channel.
Lee Selisky is the Founder and CEO of Sea Pearls, Inc., a major dive industry manufacturer located in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Privately held, the company operates from combined manufacturing and distribution facilities near its birthplace in the northwest Minneapolis metro. Sea Pearls, Inc., is known for its manufacture and distribution of scuba diving weights to wholesale customers in the recreational scuba diving industry. The SPI division makes a wide range of custom die-cast lead components for industrial, medical, and military customers. Selisky is a former Board Member and President of the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) and he is an active voice in the scuba industry. Selisky is an avid boater and diver with a special interest in the shipwrecks of Lake Superior. Lee takes a keen interest in the history of diving equipment, especially that of commercial hardhat equipment.
Lee is the past Chairman of the Historical Diving Society, USA. He also served on the Board of Governors of the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in the Cayman Islands. Lee currently serves on the Board of Directors of Divers Alert Network.
AUAS UNVEILS THE NEW “MILLENNIUM” NOGI
The Millennium NOGI
On October 6, a cascade of “Wow!”s filled the ballroom of the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel as the NOGI Awards Banquet was in full swing. The audience was overwhelmed by the gorgeous new Millennium NOGI statuette, which was presented in public for the first time by Harry Shanks, the Executive Director of The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences, AUAS President, Hillary Viders, and AUAS Chairman of the Board, Ralph White.
The NOGI Award is the oldest and most prestigious award in diving, dating back to the 1950’s when it was created by Jay Albanese and Louis Cuccia. NOGI is an acronym for “New Orleans Grand Isle,” and the first NOGIs were given to world champion spear fishermen. In the early 1960’s the Underwater Society of America sanctioned the award from Albanese’s family and began presenting it annually to the top divers in four categories: Arts, Science, Sports and Education and Distinguished Service. In 1993, The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS) was created by Harry Shanks, and since that time, the NOGI has been administered and presented by AUAS with ongoing support from USOA.
NOGI Recipients are selected by their peers, and the roster of NOGI Fellows is a veritable ”Who’s Who” in Diving, with such famous members as Jacques Cousteau, Dr. Robert Ballard, Jim Cameron, Peter Benchley, Dr. Eugenie Clark, Dr. Sylvia Earle, and Zale Parry. The NOGI statuette, resembles the Hollywood Oscar, and as such, is sometimes referred to as “The Academy Award of Diving.”
The Millennium NOGI, created by AUAS Artist in Residence, Wyland, is made of the highest quality clear Lucite with a multi-level black Lucite pedestal. The Millennium NOGI is the exact same shape and size of the NOGI that has been presented for the last 45 years, but the new material is such that the image resembles gracefully flowing water. Another distinctive change is that instead of having the NOGI Recipient’s name engraved on a brass plaque, the name as well as the year and the category of the Recipient’s award will be hand etched directly into the Lucite.
The Milllenium Lucite NOGI is a piece of fine art. It will replace the traditional NOGI that was first cast in wood and in recent years, made of Polywood. Beginning in 2006, every new NOGI recipient will be presented with a Lucite NOGI.
Ralph White, announced, “the NOGI Award has been a cornerstone of the diving world for almost five decades, during which time it has served as a symbol of excellence. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, AUAS has been expanding in exciting new ways, and along with this progress, we felt it was time for the NOGI to also move to a higher plane. Thus the name, Millennium NOGI.”
2004 Press Releases
2004 NOGI FELLOWS UPHOLD AUAS LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE
The Recipients of the 2004 NOGI Awards are Guy Harvey (Arts), Paul Dayton (Science), Armand Zig" Zigahn (Sports and Education), and Henri Delauze (Distinguished Service).
The NOGI Award is the oldest award and most prestigious award in the diving industry, dating back to 1960. Since that time, the NOGI has been bestowed on a select cadre of divers who rank at the top of their field in Arts, Science, Sports and Education and Distinguished service. The roster of NOGI Recipients is a virtual "Who's Who in Diving." with such diving legends as Jacques Cousteau, Dr. Robert Ballard, Dr. Sylvia Earle and Zale Parry.
The NOGI Awards are administered by the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS). Each NOGI is a large statuette which resembles the Hollywood Oscar statuette, thus earning the title, "the Academy Award of diving."
The 2004 NOGI Recipients will be presented with their statuettes at the annual NOGI Awards Dinner in Las Vegas in October 2005. AUAS President, Hillary Viders, Ph.D., remarked, "the 2004 NOGI Award Recipients are truly outstanding individuals of whom the Academy is very proud. They uphold AUAS's tradition of excellence."
Guy Harvey (Arts) is a unique blend of artist, scientist, diver, angler, conservationist and explorer, fiercely devoted to his family and his love of the sea. Growing up in Jamaica Guy was inspired by the abundant marine wildlife around the island. From his early inspirations, Guy’s natural gift to recreate marine life has propelled him from Professor of Marine Biology to a Wildlife Artist and Photographer. Guy initially opted for a scientific education, earning high honors in Marine Biology at Aberdeen University in Scotland in 1977. He continued his formal training at the University of West Indies, where he obtained a Doctorate in Fisheries Management. In 1986, Guy was selected as Jamaica’s representative to the International Game Fish Association and in 1992 was appointed as a Trustee. In 1999, the Oceanographic Center of Nova Southeastern University and Guy Harvey collaborated to create a non-profit Marine Research Institute, The Guy Harvey Research Institute. In 2004, Guy Harvey’s Portraits from the Deep, a 13-episode, made-for-television fishing series aired on Outdoor Life Network. Guy currently maintains his art studio in Grand Cayman, where he lives with wife Gillian and their two children, Jessica and Alex.
Dr. Paul Dayton (Science) is a world-renowned biological oceanographer at Scripps Oceanographic Institution. Professor Dayton researches coastal and estuarine habitats, including seafloor (or "benthic") and kelp communities, as well as global fisheries. He has conducted investigations in several parts of the world, including spending more than 50 months in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, performing research during more than 900 dives under the ice. The scientific papers resulting from these research projects are largely believed to have set the standard for Antarctic undersea ecology. Dayton's studies also include the impacts of overfishing on marine ecosystems. He recently served as a director for the Ocean Conservancy and the National Research Council Panel on Marine Protected Areas. Dr. Dayton's career has been motivated by the belief that one must understand nature to protect it, and he has attempted to use analytical techniques to understand marine community systems. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., also recently honored Dayton with an Award for Merit for outstanding scientific research and for his work in management and policy and the 2002 American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also the only person to have won both of the Ecological Society of America's Mercer and Cooper research awards and in 2004 he won the E.O. Wilson award from the American Society of Naturalists. A resident of Solana Beach, Calif., Dayton was born in Tucson, Ariz., and received a B.Sc. in zoology from the University of Arizona in 1963. In 1970, he earned a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Washington, Seattle. He is a member of the Ecological Society of America and the American Society of Naturalists, and he is both a member and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1990, he was appointed a member of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission by President George Bush. He has served the United States Marine Mammal Commission and the University of California Natural Reserve System. Previously he received the Louise Burt Award for excellence in oceanographic writing from Oregon State University.
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Armand “Zig” Zigahn (Sports and Education) is best known to the dive community as the Founder, Trustee, and Executive Director of Beneath the Sea, the largest consumer dive and travel show in America (Beneath the Sea will celebrate its 29th year the middle weekend of March 2005 when, with the help of 100 volunteers and 30 Managers and Directors, it opens its doors to the public). An enthusiastic scuba diver, Armand Zigahn founded The Scuba Sport Rites Club in 1975. With those members as his working base of volunteers, he then founded Beneath the Sea. Later, with his wife, Joann Zigahn, he co-founded Ocean Pals, the children’s environmental education section of Beneath the Sea. The Women Diver’s Hall of Fame also began its life as a part of Beneath the Sea with Armand Zigahn as one of its Founders. He is an auxiliary Board Member of The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences and a charter member of DEMA.
Henri G. Delauze (Distinguished Service) founded COMEX and its world-renowned Subsea Services in 1961. He was awarded a degree in engineering from the Ecole Supérieure des Arts et Métiers in Aix-en-Provence (1946/49) and a Master of Science in Marine Geology at the University of California (Berkeley) in 1960. From 1952 to 1955, he cooperated on a voluntary basis with Captain Cousteau's team as an engineer and as a diver in Marseilles (OFRS). From 1956 to 1961, during his promising career with the big international contractor, Grands Travaux de Marseille, he was responsible for several major large construction sites, including the motorway tunnel under Havana's bay in Cuba (1956/57). At the end of 1961, back in France, he joined the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) as head of the "ARCHIMEDE" Bathyscaph Submersible Laboratory in which he carried out a dive to a depth of – 9 650 metres, off the coast of Japan in 1961. He thus became the "Deepest Frenchman in the world" (the deepest human dive was sponsored by the US Navy with Ct Don WALSH and Jacques PICCARD in the Batyscaph “TRIESTE” to 10.700 m. in 1960). Delauze anticipated the oil industry need for deep diving assistance and created a hyperbaric experimental center where scientists and engineers could study the effects of pressure on divers and develop new sub-sea techniques. He personally participated in the first dives with helium at depths of 335m and 360m during which the high-pressure nervous syndrome was discovered and described. Under his leadership COMEX developed many of the technologies now used by all the offshore industry such as the diving spread configurations, hyperbaric welding, cold and hot tapping, abrasive jetting and underwater NDT. Henri has been married since 1953 and has three children, Michèle, Marc and Béatrice.
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