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Obituary 22.06.2013 deutsche welle

Diving icon and 'Lord

of the Sharks'

Hans Hass is dead

Austrian undersea explorer and writer Hans Hass has died aged 94. His expeditions, books and films were part of the pioneering 20th-century efforts to unlock the secrets of the deep. Sharks were his pet project.

Hans Hass' family announced on Saturday that the famous Austrian zoologist and undersea explorer died last weekend at the age of 94. Hass published 32 books and produced 73 films during his career on the seas in his "Xarifa" boat. He was born in 1919 in Vienna.

Hass' reports both funded his own adventures and brought images and descriptions of aquatic life into German-speaking living rooms. His 1951 film "Adventure in the Red Sea" was one of the first post-war films to make the underwater world observable to all.

Hass was bitten by the bug early, publishing his first book, "Hunting underwater with a harpoon and a camera," aged 20 in 1939. His career took him all over the world, with sharks his great underwater love.

Hans Hass became a household face on television, starting to explore the depths as early as the 1940s

"Today divers are ten a penny. When we started diving, we were the very first people to make such inroads," Hass said shortly before his 90th birthday.

Lord of the sharks

Hass consistently campaigned for a better reputation for sharks, seeking to remove their stigma as savages of the sea. He released films including "People among sharks," and books like "Among the corals and the sharks" or "The shark – the legend of a murderer" to seek to improve awareness on the animals. Hass was later nicknamed "The Lord of the Sharks" for his efforts.

Hass developed a string of methods and tools to allow him to better scour the seas; he made the first working underwater camera, developed special diving fins and implemented a new diving kit with oxygen supply that enabled him to act more independently of his research ship.

"I wanted to move like a fish among the fishes," Hass once said of his work.

Hass stopped diving himself decades ago, but remained a prolific writer on the issue. He also continued to campaign for undersea creatures and became a keen advocate of ecologist causes in later life.

©Deutsche Welle

Hass acknowledged a rivalry with the better-known French scientist Jacques Cousteau; according to the New York Times' obituary, Hass told historian Tim Ecott that "For Cousteau there exists only Cousteau. He never acknowledged others or corrected the impression that he wasn't the first in diving or underwater photography."

These are Hass's most important Innovations in Diving Technology:

1938: New lightweight UW-Photo Camera for ROBOT

1940: First UW-Color Photos (Catalina Island USA) and UW-Film

1941: Development of the new technique of swim diving for research, industry and sport.

1944: Construction of a Heliox-Rebreather (Prototype)

1949: New System of Deep-sea-Film and Photography (called “Bathyopthalm”)

1949: Worldwide Patents for a new method of fishing by radiosignals (called “Elektro-Marina”)

1950: UW-Camera housing “Leica System Hans Hass” with electronic flash

1954: UW-Camera housing “Rolleimarin System Hans Hass”, also as Stereo-Camera

1955: Co-Development and Promotion of a UW-watch (ENICAR Sherpa)

1956: New patented Design of swim fins (called “Superfish”)

1973: Construction of a UW-Habitat (Almeria/Spain)

1977: Construction of a small submersible together with the german firm BRUKER for deep-sea research, tourism and oilexploration.

1983: Development and Promotion of an innovative of Decompression-Computer (called “Deco-Brain”)

AWARDS

First Prize of the Chancellor for the "best movie idea for an Austrian propaganda film" (1949)

Gold Medal of the Photographic Society in Vienna (1950)

Biennale Prize (1951)

The film "Adventures in the Red Sea" received the International Prize for feature length documentaries for the 2nd Mostra Internazionale del Film Scientifico e del Documentario d'Arte in Venice (1951)

The TV series "Diving to Adventure" is from the BBC named "Program of the Year" (1955)

Outstanding Underwater Photographer of the Year of the Underwater

Photographic Society (USA, International Underwater Film Festival 1959)

Oscar for extraordinary underwater photography for the film Unternehmen Xarifa (1959)

Honorary Member of the German Skindiving (1974)

Honorary title "Professor", awarded by Science Minister Hertha Firnberg (1977)Honorary Member of the European educational community - Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart (1978)

Science Medal of the City of Linz (1987)

IADS Lifetime Achievement Award (International Association of Diving Schools, 1989)

Golden Needle of the Association of German Sports Divers (VDST, 1994)

Honorary President "Sponsoring scuba diving." (1994)

Reg Vallintine Achievement Award for Historical Diving (UK, 1994)

Reaching Out Award (Diving Equipment & Marketing Association, United States; 1997)

Diving Pioneer Trophy of the Historical Diving Society (USA, 1997)

Diving Pioneer Award of the Historical Diving Society (Italy, 1997)

Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1997)

Two NOGI Awards for Science and Distinguished Service (USA, 1998)

Gold Medal of Honour of Vienna (1999)

Honorary President of the PEN Club Liechtenstein (1999)

Konrad Lorenz Award for Environmental Protection (1999)

Golden Medal of Honour of the Austrian Federal Guild of Photographers (1999)DANUBIUS Donauland Sachbuchpreis (1999)

Goldenes Lot the Association of German surveyors (1999)

International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame, 2000

Dieter Plage-Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding achievement in the field of nature films (2001)

Christopher Parsons Award for outstanding achievement in the field of nature films (2004)

Peace Prize for Biology of the "World Association of Private Schools and Universities for Complementary Healing Practices" (2005)

Cayman Islands International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame Award (2006)

Wyland ICON Award (2006)

Beneath the Sea Special Award (2006)

Pannatura Prize for achievements in the nature film (2006)

Schmitz-Salue Medal by the Friends of Aquazoo-Löbbecke Museum, Düsseldorf (2009)

Elisabeth Mann Borgese marine prize (Schleswig-Holstein, 2009)

DIVA - German Entertainment Price (2011)

Platinum Romy for lifetime achievement (2012)

A cone shell, found in the Philippines, was named after him (Conus hanshassi) (2012)

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