FRESHWATER DIVER
Pictured: A brown trout in
the River Lathkill in
Derbyshire.Below, from left: Atlantic
salmon; snorkelling with
minnows in the River Wye
in Wales; a rainbow trout.Fascinated by the natural world,
I started fishing when I was 11. By 16,
I had taken up photography. I looked at
what other photographers had done in
terms of recording freshwater fish in the
UK and found that there was little out
there, other than the odd pike portrait
from Stoney Cove. Many freshwater fish
species had hardly been
photographed in their
natural environment.
The lure of
sea tends
to be aneasier sell then some mucky pond or
canal, but inland waters hold such
a diverse range of species and subjects
for photographers to get stuck into. And
I lived, and still live, in Nottingham,
which is nowhere near the sea!
In 2013 I set up a crowdfunding
campaign to try to film every species
of fish found in British fresh water –
so behaving a bit like a birder, but in
scuba gear.
I was expecting to capture all 54
species in a year, but in fact I’ve only just
completed the task!
At the start there were issues around
what constitutes a British freshwater
fish. Should I include only native
species? Naturalised ones? And what
about marine fish that enter fresh water?
I decided to base my list on the speciesfound in Mark Everard’s books about
British freshwater fish – with one or two
additions – focusing on all the native
species, naturalised and common non-
natives and the few marine fish that can
stay in fresh water for prolonged periods.
Over time I have developed photo
techniques to use while scuba diving and
snorkelling, along with pole-cams and
underwater camera traps.
In the time that I have been working
on the project underwater cameras have
changed massively and, now that they
are more affordable and widely used, it
has become far more common to see fish
footage online.
I knew I had to find the best spots
possible if my work was to stand out.
I relied on many fisheries scientists,
Environment Agency staff, anglersACCOMPLISHED
☛
53 divEr