2018 Visionary Award

Valerie Taylor is recognized around the world as a pioneering ocean explorer and marine conservationist, cinematographer, still photographer and author. She and her beloved husband Ron Taylor spent over 63 years travelling and making films together before Ron’s death in 2012. During the span of their career the Taylor name became synonymous with sharks. Valerie and Ron are the first people ever to film great white sharks underwater with and without a cage.

What isn’t widely known about Valerie is that her first career was as a cartoonist and illustrator. A naturally gifted artist, she delights in drawing and painting. Her underwater scenes blend photorealistic sketches of marine creatures—sharks, fishes and corals—with whimsical watery creatures of her own imagination, such as the mermaids featured throughout her newly released children’s book, Melody the Mermaid: Adventures in the Kingdoms of the Sea.

Valerie has received countless honours for her conservation efforts, including being appointed Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernard of the Netherlands. Valerie received the Australian Centenary Medal for her work in marine conservation.

Proceeds from her book sales will support marine conservation and education organizations including the Women Divers Hall of Fame, of which she is an inaugural inductee, as well as Australian Aboriginal land and water conservation initiatives. Both she and Ron are former Divers of the Year and Legends of the Sea at Beneath the Sea.