Thanks to Mike DeGruy
An explorer's enthusiasm, gone too soon
This past Saturday in Australia, the ocean conservation and the motion picture community lost two of its great adventurers. Mike DeGruy of Santa Barbara, California, and Andrew Wight of Victoria, Australia were killed when a helicopter owned by Wight crashed just after take-off in North South Wales. The two were reportedly preparing to scout locations for a documentary film they were working on when the helicopter came down. An investigation by Australian authorities is underway to determine the cause.
Mike DeGruy, 60, has a distinguished career in ocean studies, starting from his early years with the Waikiki Aquarium as Curator of Invertebrates followed by work in the Enewetak Atoll and Palau, which lead him into making ocean-related films for the BBC, PBS, and National Geographic. Eventually, Mike's enthusiasm and personality made its way in front of the camera and he became an energetic host on many nature television productions.
