2015 awards archive
2015 Diving Pioneers
Beneath the Sea’s Pioneer Awards Program reaches back into the annals of underwater research, travel, the arts, and community to recognize those whose achievements have brought honor to the underwater diving community. It is the ambition of this category to bring the experienced into contact with the young so that each may discover the joy of life and discovery.
Morton and Alese Pechter
Morton and Alese Pechter worked for years within the SCUBA industry and with the general public to create an awareness of SCUBA as an accepted sport. Their contact and work with the mass media helped to change the image of the industry from “macho” to an accepted family recreational sport.
As the official photographers for DEMA almost since its inception, they have traveled the globe documenting the underwater experience - photographing, writing, and lecturing, passing the word along about the world of SCUBA. Scientists and writers, as well as media personnel, have been the beneficiaries of their excellent candids. Accompanying the DEMA press trips, they have also supplied underwater and topside photos for international journalists whose articles have appeared worldwide in publications outside the diving community. Their photographic library is a veritable history of the diving world and international SCUBA sites.
They have been masthead contributors to Underwater USA, Caribbean Travel & Life, Dive Training, and Rodale’s Sport Diver publications. Several of their underwater photos were selected by the Chinese government to be part of a special art show touring their country.
They have been elected Fellow National members in the prestigious Explorers Club for their contribution to scientific knowledge in the field of geographical exploration, life members of the National Marine Educators Association and the Historical Divers Association. Alese was elected a charter member of the Women Divers Hall of Fame.
The Pechters have been featured speakers on several television productions, among them a special television production about sea and space including Michael Collins, the command module pilot for the first landing on the moon. They have photographed segments for the Today Show with Al Roker, 20/20 with Hugh Downs and Sylvia Earle, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood with Sylvia Earle and Mister Rogers, and Good Morning America with Sylvia Earle, Mister Rogers, and Kim Alexis.
They have had several prestigious art gallery shows, and their works are in private collections as well as the permanent collections of the Long Island Science Museum, Florida Atlantic University, and Adelphi University. They were active founding members of the Long Island Science Museum, having carried the title of Administrative Vice President of the museum for several years. Among their many awards, Alese and Morton Pechter have been honored by the United Nations Environment Programme and recognized by the US Navy as Honorary Deep Sea Divers. They have also been honored by the South Florida Police Search & Rescue Teams, were selected as the 1996 Photojournalists of the Year, were awarded the 2003 NOGI for Distinguished Service, and were previously recognized as Divers of the Year by Beneath the Sea. Most recently they were inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame and received the diving industry’s highest honor, the Reaching Out Award.
The Pechters have the unique ability to instill in others the same excitement and enthusiasm for life’s wonders that they have. Their obvious delight for the world beneath the sea is nurtured by their deep commitment to conservation and preservation of the underwater wilderness. Mort is no longer with us, but his wife and partner Alese continues their professional tradition.
