Roger Grace: an underwater photo legend

by Sudhanshu Malhotra

Last week we received the sad news that one of our great specialist underwater photographers who worked extensively with Greenpeace over the years, Dr. Roger Grace, passed away recently in New Zealand.
Roger was onboard the Rainbow Warrior II in 1990 as it set sail for its first campaign searching for drift netters in the Tasman Sea. In the coming years, he travelled to Antarctica, worked extensively on the Pacific tuna campaign, and scores of other campaigns. He represented a generation of classical photographers. It is difficult to imagine that he could have produced some of the most iconic underwater images with the bare minimum of equipment and technology available in those days. Some of these images are a testimony of his love for marine life and his commitment to the cause of protecting them.

Beate Lochhaas, Sakis Manisiotis and Roger Grace on the deck of the Rainbow Warrior. The Rainbow Warrior is in the Mediterranean for a three-month ship tour calling for a network of large-scale marine reserves to protect the health and productivity of the Mediterranean Sea. © Greenpeace / Nick Cobbing

Bluefin tuna inside a transport cage. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

Four banners reading “Marine Reserves Now” in English, Turkish, Hebrew and Arabic are held by divers on a Zostera seagrass bed near Kas. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

Underwater view of turtle, shot just below the water line, Equator, Pacific Ocean. Greenpeace tour aimed at highlighting the overfishing of the Pacific Ocean by foreign distant water fishing fleets. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

Large Bluefin Tuna caught by Japanese longliner Chidori Maru No 5 in FSM waters, Pacific Ocean. Greenpeace tour aimed at highlighting the overfishing of the Pacific Ocean by foreign distant water fishing fleets. The tour specifically focuses on the mass depletion of Tuna stocks and the severe consequences this has created for local fishing communities. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

Linda Ingham with Pacific white-sided dolphin caught in Japanese driftnet, north Pacific. (Greenpeace Witness book page 146) © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

Greenpeace crew collecting bycatch discarded from the NZ deep sea trawler Amaltal Voyager in international waters in the Tasman Sea. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

Adelie penguins on ice near islands south of Buckle Island, Balleny group. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

Coral Gardens, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

about the author

Sudhanshu Malhotra

Sudhanshu Malhotra is the Multimedia Editor at Greenpeace International and you can follow him on Instagram.