This biographical article is written like a résumé .(November 2021) |
Lesley Rochat | |
---|---|
Born | Pretoria, South Africa |
Nationality | South African |
Education | University of Cape Town |
Occupation(s) | Conservationist, author, speaker, photographer, film director |
Website | lesleyrochat |
Lesley Rochat is a South African marine and shark conservationist, [1] campaigner, [2] wildlife filmmaker, underwater photographer, [3] [4] environmental writer, [5] author, speaker [6] and activist. [7] She founded the non-profit organisation AfriOceans Conservation Alliance in 2003 for which she is the chief executive officer.
Rochat is a leading figure in efforts to conserve our oceans, and in shark conservation in particular. [8] Due to her passionate efforts in shark conservation, and the lengths she goes to, to raise awareness and change negative perceptions of sharks, such as freediving with sharks, she is known as the Shark Warrior. [9] In 2014, Rochat won the Johnnie Walker / Sunday Times Nations Greatest Challenger Award [10] for her work in conservation in South Africa and for challenging conformity. In 2010 she was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame. [11] In 2013 she was inducted into the Global Oceans Society. In 2015 she was nominated for a second time for Africa's Most Influential Women in Business and Government Awards. She has appeared in numerous TV shows promoting ocean conservation including CBS News. [12]
Rochat was born in Pretoria, South Africa to Bryan Allon Rochat and Leilani Rochat. She is the middle child of a family of nine children, eight girls and one boy. Her love for the ocean was instilled from an early age when growing up along the Garden Route of South Africa.
She matriculated at Krugersdorp High School. She holds a Perf. Dip. from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Rochat began modelling while studying at the University of Cape Town. She modeled swimwear and underwear for brands such Le Coq Sportif and Arena, Garlicks and Woolworths. After graduating from the University of Cape Town's Drama School, Rochat was accepted into the Performing Arts Council (PACT) of the Transvaal (now Gauteng Province). She was cast in leading roles, playing alongside South Africa's leading actors and actresses such as Sandra Prinsloo. She was a professional actress, going on to co-direct and perform and sing in cabaret shows, perform at the State Theatre, South Africa in Pretoria, act in South African SABC TV productions, and as a SABC TV Presenter for a weekly magazine program. She diversified into the corporate world becoming a successful insurance agent with Liberty Life South Africa.[ citation needed ] In 2003 she founded AfriOceans Conservation Alliance.
Rochat is the chief executive officer of AfriOceans Conservation Alliance, a registered Section 21 non-profit organisation focused on marine and shark conservation based in Cape Town, South Africa. AfriOceans became established as a leading ocean conservation organisation in South Africa through the Maxine, Science, Education and Awareness Programme, [13] a shark conservation project designed by Rochat, which involved the satellite tagging and releasing of captive raggedtooth sharks (sand tiger shark) from the Two Oceans Aquarium in South Africa. Rochat is also the principal photographer and videographer for the organisation. In 2010 under Rochat's leadership, the AfriOceans Warriors Environmental Programme, an environmental education programme funded by the National Lottery of South Africa, was established.
SWIM LIKE A SHARK is another of Rochat's educational programs, launched in 2015, which teaches water skills to underprivileged children while nurturing the next generation of ocean guardians.[ citation needed ]
Rochat is the CEO of Blue Pulse Pictures, her documentary film company which produces awareness documentaries focused on the oceans. She is a producer for the SABC3 TV Human/Nature show since 2004 50|50 and has produced a number of inserts for them, including Sharks in Deep Trouble, a documentary about shark finning in South African waters.
Rochat is an environmental photojournalist [14] and underwater photographer. Her bylines and images have been published in many newspapers (in 2010 Rochat covered the CITES conference in Doha Qatar for Associated Press) and magazines including Africa Geographic, Ocean Geographic, [15] Diver Magazine, and Asian Diver. She runs photographic expeditions and wildlife safaris through her company, Shark Warrior Adventures. She is the author of educational books for children, namely Sharks, Teachers Handbook, [16] Alphabet of the Sea, Marine Activities, and Feebee the Turtle.
Through AfriOceans Rochat produces campaigns aimed at raising awareness about critical ocean issues. With Saatchi & Saatchi, Cape Town, Rochat created the Rethink the Shark campaign which won a Wildscreen Panda Award in 2008. This was followed by her Rethink the Predator campaign, and Oceans Reach Out campaign. In 2012 Rochat launched the Shark Warrior campaign through AfriOceans which identifies high profile individuals who lend their fame and name to the shark conservation cause. These include South Africa's sexiest man 2014 and celebrity Johnathan Boyton-Lee, champion freediver, Trevor Hutton who dove to 70 metres in the AfriOceans Deep Freedive for Sharks campaign, [17] and big wave surfer Frank Solomon. [18]
Given the lengths Rochat goes to, to raise awareness, Rochat is considered an extreme conservationist. For two of her awareness campaigns Catches Anything, Kills Everything and Get Hooked on Conservation, Ban Drumlines, [19] Rochat stripped naked and posed underwater with sharks surrounding her. Rochat is the voice for those who cannot speak and is often on international and national TV shows challenging policies and practices which harm marine life. [20]
As a public speaker, [21] Rochat speaks at events and to companies, organisations, universities and schools. Raising awareness about the oceans and global environmental change are key messages in her multi-media presentations.
Tanya Streeter is a British-Caymanian-American world champion freediver, inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in March 2000.
Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.
Spearfishing is fishing using handheld elongated, sharp-pointed tools such as a spear, gig, or harpoon, to impaling the fish in the body. It was one of the earliest fishing techniques used by mankind, and has been deployed in artisanal fishing throughout the world for millennia. Early civilizations were familiar with the custom of spearing fish from rivers and streams using sharpened sticks.
PADI AWARE Foundation is an environmental nonprofit organization with three registered charities in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia. Their mission is to drive local action for global ocean conservation. They advance their mission by engaging an international community of both professional and recreational scuba divers via the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).
Ron Josiah Taylor, AM was a prominent Australian shark expert, as is his widow, Valerie Taylor. They were credited with being pioneers in several areas, including being the first people to film great white sharks without the protection of a cage. Their expertise has been called upon for films such as Jaws, Orca and Sky Pirates.
Association Internationale pour le Développement de l'Apnée (AIDA) is a worldwide rule- and record-keeping body for competitive breath holding events, also known as freediving. It sets standards for safety, comparability of Official World Record attempts and freedive education. AIDA International is the parent organization for national clubs of the same name.
Francisco Rodriguez, better known as Francisco 'Pipin' Ferreras is a Cuban free-diver known for his achievements in deep free diving and his relationship with his wife, Audrey Mestre.
William Trubridge is a New Zealand world champion and world record holding freediver.
Michael Rutzen is a South African conservationist, film maker, and cage diving operator.
Mehgan Heaney-Grier is an American champion freediver, fashion model, actress, conservationist, and TV personality.
Hanli Prinsloo is a South African freediver, speaker, writer and ocean conservationist. She is the founder and executive director of I Am Water, an ocean conservation trust dedicated to conserving and protecting the world's oceans through human experience. During her competitive years as a freediver, she broke eleven South African free diving records and was the first South African to hold all six free diving records simultaneously.
Flavia Dias Eberhard, known as Flavia Eberhard, is a Brazilian free-diver, presenter of TV series "APNEIA", freediving instructor trainer, international fashion and underwater model, conservationist, and TV personality. She has nine freediving records including a South American Absolute Record on the discipline of free immersion. Eberhard also works with underwater videography and underwater photography with Sea Dragons audiovisual and has presented documentaries for the TV and film festivals.
Hannah Fraser, known professionally as Hannah Mermaid, is a professional model, actress, dancer, and performer who specialises in underwater and ocean-oriented freediving performances, often in mermaid costume. She is a central figure in modern mermaiding and is an ocean ecology activist.
Johanna Nordblad is a Finnish designer, ice diver and freediver.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater diving:
The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater divers:
This is a list of underwater divers whose exploits have made them notable. Underwater divers are people who take part in underwater diving activities – Underwater diving is practiced as part of an occupation, or for recreation, where the practitioner submerges below the surface of the water or other liquid for a period which may range between seconds to order of a day at a time, either exposed to the ambient pressure or isolated by a pressure resistant suit, to interact with the underwater environment for pleasure, competitive sport, or as a means to reach a work site for profit or in the pursuit of knowledge, and may use no equipment at all, or a wide range of equipment which may include breathing apparatus, environmental protective clothing, aids to vision, communication, propulsion, maneuverability, buoyancy and safety equipment, and tools for the task at hand.
Valerie May Taylor AM is a conservationist, photographer and filmmaker, and an inaugural member of the diving hall-of-fame. With her husband Ron Taylor, she made documentaries about sharks, and filmed sequences for films including Jaws (1975).
Estrella Navarro-Holm is a marine biologist, model, and national record-holding free diver from Mexico. She is the first Latin American woman to win a free diving medal for holding a single breath for more than six minutes.
The Women Divers Hall of Fame (WDHOF) is an international honor society. Its purpose is to honor the accomplishments of women divers, and their contributions to various fields of underwater diving. Full membership is restricted to nominees who have been found to meet the WDHOF's criteria, which include being an underwater diver and having contributed to diving in ways recognised as being significant.