The names of three members of the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP) have been added to a roll call of elite 'ambassadors of the sea' at a special awards ceremony in New Orleans, LA, during DEMA '99. Peter Scoones, Colin Doeg and Peter Rowlands have been accepted into Scuba Schools International's Platinum Foundation (www.waterexplorer.com/foundation.htm), which is restricted to those who have already completed 5,000 dives in their lifetime or who have done half that number but have also made significant contributions to diving.

Scoones and Doeg founded BSoUP in 1967 and were the original secretary and chairman, respectively. Scoones, has gone on to become a world class wildlife underwater cameraman. His work appears regularly in BBC documentaries and on the Discovery Channel. He also subsequently served as chairman and president. Doeg was chairman for some eight years and under his leadership, the Society developed into a world-respected body. Rowlands, who founded Ocean Optics, the underwater photographic business in London some 20 years ago, was also a long-serving secretary of BSoUP as well as chairman and president for some years. Readers of Dive International benef it from the extensive photographic experience of Rowlands and Doeg in their contributions to Photo Clinic.

A fourth recipient was Georgette Douwma, who is Dutch but lives in London. She assists Scoones on the majority of his filming assignments throughout the world, including photographing great white sharks.

Other members of the Platinum Foundation include the late Jacques Cousteau and his son Jean-Michel, Hans and Lottie Hass, Howard Hall, Al Giddings, Ron and Valerie Taylor, Rodney Fox, Eugenie Clark, David Doubilet, Jim Church, Doug Perrine, Marty Snyclerman, Stan Waterman and Mike Wong.

Only five other UK divers have previously been admitted to the Foundation. Said a representative of SSI, which was founded in 1970 and is now one of the world's largest accreditation agencies'.

*The purpose of the awards is to honour diving's elite. However, though a great many applications are received each year, there (ire only just over 1,000 members of the Foundation world-wide. One of the aims is to develop and distribute educational materials and programmes throughout the world so the next generation of young people will be committed guardians of the planet's waters.'