Steve Pratchett also works in the media of photography as an underwater photographer
Steve Pratchett diving at the South Ari Atol in the Maldives April 2011
Steve Pratchett started diving with the BSAC in 1978. He re-trained as a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver in 1995. In 1996 he was trained by the professional underwater photographer Peter Dalton and qualified as a PADI Speciality Diver in Underwater Photography at Sharm el Sheikh on the Red Sea. Steve Pratchett has dived in Madeira, Turkey, Antigua, the Red Sea, the Maldives and the UK.
The underwater photographs were taken using a Sea-Sea Motor Marine II Ex with a YS-60 TTL Strobe and both macro and wide-angle lenses
Giant Moral Eel at 'Guraidhoo Corner' dive site in the Maldives April 2011
The Maldives
Diving with Deep Blue Dive Centres from the Yasawa Princess live-aboard
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Red Sea
Diving from Oonas Divers dive centre and Red Sea Diving College in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt
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Madeira
Diving from the Madeira Divepoint dive centre
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The wreck of the Bowbelle
Some of the photographs in the gallery above were taken on the Wreck of the Bowbelle, a sand dredger, which became infamous on 20th August 1989 when it ran down the Marchioness pleasure boat on the River Thames under Cannon Street Railway Bridge, leading to the deaths of 51 young people. It was eventually sold to a dredging company in Madeira and, while dredging, broke in two and sank on March 25th 1996. It now sits upright on the seabed at a maximum depth of 32 metres off Magdalena Do Mar in Madeira, 28 kilometres west of Funchal. During the week dredgers harvest sand near the wreck causing poor visibility so diving trips take place at weekends. Divers can penetrate the wreck through tears in the hull and swim through the wheel house. The wreck is often frequented by Jacks chasing shoals of Sardines that congregate above and the hull is festooned with Yellow Encrusting Anemones and soft corals including Whip Corals.
All rights copyright the photographer. No use of images allowed without expressed consent of the photographer