Oceans Discovery (OD)
OD is a film production company focusing on educational and entertaining television programming, promoting the conservation of our planets underwater natural resources and the protection of our remaining cultural marine heritage. But OD is going beyond the film production of underwater discovery and archaeology, it is trying to find ways in which our cultural treasures and the marine environment could be preserved, whereby the local communities could benefit and have the incentive to ensure protection of their underwater resources.

Television Experience and Marine-Technical know-how
OD, with more than twenty years of television experience and marine technical know-how has been formed as a result of groundbreaking experience in underwater exploration and videography. During that time the organization has developed strong working relation ships with many top experts in the field of cultural heritage preservation including UNESCO, ICOMOS & ICUCH. OD has recognized the need for cultural heritage protection as well as marine life preservation especially in the Caribbean Region and has therefore shifted its main field of operation to this area.

Developing Innovative U/W Film and Display Technologies
For the past few years Oceans Discovery has developed and created the means for the implementation of innovative underwater film and display technologies. One key element of this task is to place live HD-cameras at various underwater spots, so that they would transmit marine-life images, either wire-less or by means of fiber-optic-cable, directly into the classrooms of an institute or university, thereby creating scientific imagery for the high-definition film and photo libraries and subsequent film productions needed for research and education.

Broadcast related Training Demonstration during Filming
The training of local and regional filmmakers and students is just one of the stated intention of Oceans Discovery and its Foundation and, as an example of that intent and gesture of good will; the project foresees during the upcoming filming period, the involvement of 3-4 selected students to demonstrate how such broadcast training programs would work in reality and in the future. The various training programs will subsequently be carried out with assistance and support of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) and the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU).

The Project becomes the Training
Selected students, which could come from universities, local schools, organizations, institutes and private companies, will have the real opportunity to work with an internationally established and experienced film team and the newest HD-broadcast technology in order to gain experience by actively participating in everything from story development to camera handling on land, underwater, in the air and on the water. They will also be involved in post production and learn firsthand about computer animation and even how special effects are prepared on site.

Oceans Discovery - Management & Research Team

Rick Haupt, CEO, Filmmaker, Arctic Explorer, Author

Rick is a founding partner of Oceans Discovery and the Oceans Discovery Foundation. He has led more than two dozens successful shipwreck-hunting expeditions from the Arctic to the Caribbean, from the Pacific Coast to the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean. During these expeditions Rick’s team rewrote the history of the legendary lost North West Passage expedition of Sir John Franklin: they were the first to find and film the final resting place of the famed Canadian racing schooner Bluenose in Haiti; and they assisted the Governments of Canada, Poland, Malta, St. Vincent, Puerto Rico and Barbados in the identification of dozens of shipwrecks dating from Roman times to World War 2. In March 2004 he and his team discovered, during a spectacular expedition to the Southern Coast of Haiti, three very rare Commonwealth vessels belonging to Sir Henry Morgan, the King of Buccaneers.
Born in Germany, Rick has spent most of the last twenty years traveling and filming in exotic locations around the world. He is the Creator, Executive Producer and Director of the widely acclaimed Discovery Channel underwater series – “Oceans Of Mystery”. He has created, produced and directed over fifty international TV-documentaries. "Oceans Of Mystery" is currently televised on Discovery International in over 110 countries around the globe. Educated with a Diploma in International Hotel Management, he spent fifteen years as an hotelier and tourism promoter in Germany and the Caribbean before devoting himself to film making in the 1980’s. He developed and implemented the “Archaeological Shipwreck Search Program” with the Government of Canada; this was the centrepiece of a major cultural -tourism marketing initiative to bring European divers to Canada.
Rick’s interests include: writing, diving, historical research, painting and music

Sylvia Krueger, CEO, UW Photographer

Sylvia is a founding partner of Oceans Discovery and the Oceans Discovery Foundation. For many years she has been organizing and accompanying OD's filming expeditions. Currently she is preparing the pilot project for a major Public Outreach Program in the southern Caribbean. The project, which is being developed in co-operation with UNESCO & ICOMOS/ICUCH, is designed to educate the public about the significance of preserving our remaining cultural heritage underwater. Sylvia's main work besides co-managing OD is documenting and publishing photos about OD's spectacular expeditions, cultural heritage sites and marine life. With her personal work she is focusing more on the genres of forgotten cultures in remote places and the people who live there. Before Sylvia joined OD she has been the president of her own tourism business for seven years, and specialized as a travel expert for North America, Canada and the Caribbean. Sylvia has travelled professionally all over the world to gain experience and expand her knowledge about the sustainable development and management of cultural heritage sites.
Sylvia’s interests include: horseback riding, reading, parachuting, scuba diving

Paul Calverley, ODA's new CEO

Paul Calverley has more than 20 years experience as an award winning investigative broadcaster with the BBC and ITV. He was a founder team member of Britain’s most popular current affairs programme "The Cook Report" which moved from the BBC to ITV. There he specialised in international issues including the exposure of major war criminals in the former Yugoslavia and the financiers of terrorism in the UK, Europe and the USA. He was integral in developing covert and remote filming techniques, many of which have now been adopted by television and security companies worldwide. After that, he was closely involved in the training and development of digital broadcast techniques for the emerging channels and as an independent producer made documentaries for Discovery , National Geographic and the History Channel. He returned to ITV in 1999 as Head of Development and Executive Producer for ITV Wales where he was responsible for network series made by ITV for Channel 5 and Channel 4. He also produced the highly acclaimed Captain Morgan’s Mystery Ships in collaboration with ITV and the Welsh language channel S4C.
Paul's interests include: reading, hiking and enjoying nature

Richard, Elias Hadeed, Production Manager

Richard Hadeed brings a wealth of experience to Oceans Discovery. He is specializing in wood work, boat building and film-set construction. He has been responsible for various building works for the corporate headquarters of Angostura Ltd. Including – their Executive Lounge (the Oak Room), a Museum, a Gift Shop, and a Wine Shop, the construction of the film set for the Merchant – Ivory Production of V.S. Naipaul’s “The Mystic Masseur”. Richard also designed and constructed the Angostura boardwalk, a unique eco-project built in the environmentally sensitive mangrove area of Petite Trou, Tobago.
Besides holding a high-school degree of the Queens Royal Collage in T&T, and the Humber College, Ontario Canada, he also excelled at the University of Windsor, Ontario Canada as a B.A. in Philosophy/Psychology. In addition Richard gained much experience as a recording engineer at the Appalachia Sound Studios - Ohio USA.
Richard's interests include: music, philosophy, sailing, photography & agriculture

Dirk Krueger, Historical Researcher, Telecommunications Expert

Dirk Krueger is by profession, a telecommunications expert and is working for Germany's biggest entertainment broadcaster. His responsibilities with OD include: to supply the team with all the necessary research material for their television productions. Dirk's vast knowledge of marine related history and his tenacity tracking down information all over the world are great assets to all productions and publications. Over the years Dirk has become a seasoned diver and he is accompanying the team occasionally on their quests.
Dirk’s interests include: mountain bike riding, diving, travelling, reading and playing chess

Marion Hausmann, Information Technology Technician

Marion Hausmann has been growing up in St. Augustin, Siegburg. With seventeen she started in Bonn, Germany’s former capital, her education as a communication electronic technician. Since 2000 she has been working as an IT technician in one of Europe’s largest television stations. Marion’s skills as an IT specialist have been extremely useful in the past for OD’s expanding television production, filming business and underwater technology development. If she is not busy updating and programming some of OD’s computers she is also occasionally assisting the film team as a safety diver.
Marion’s interests include: inline-skating, scuba diving, reading

The Caribbean’s heritage is one of the last, great untapped tourism resources in the world. About a third of this rich heritage, which vividly tells the stories of exploration, conquest, slavery and rebirth, is hidden underwater. Culture, natural and man-made heritage have a major role to play in sustainable, tourism development, a concept which the Governments of this region have begun to recognize, to embrace and to act on. Cultural tourism is an area of this industry which incorporates an incredible economic potential – particularly to Europeans discovering a relatively ignored part of their history - that can also be a source of pride and income to the people of the Caribbean knowing and sustainable exploiting the rich history on which their culture and country is built today.

OD is therefore assisting especially the Caribbean Countries in developing Heritage Tourism Action Plans for their land based and underwater sites. As part of a worldwide public outreach program OD is providing international media exposure in support of the efforts of cultural heritage and eco tourism site development, management, marketing and training in the 15 ACP countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.

What the media is writing about us.....more....

The "Oceans Discovery Film Team” is the result of nearly twenty years of groundbreaking experience in underwater filming and documentary production. The team focuses on the genres of adventure and exploration programming and has produced more than 5 dozens documentaries. "Oceans Of Mystery”, the documentary series on Discovery Channel combines an experienced team of filmmakers, producers, scriptwriters, photographers, sound designers, scientists, researchers, television technicians, web specialists, computer animators and a team of highly trained expert divers. Equipped with cutting-edge technology the team travels around the world to film and to produce high quality documentaries in the field of ocean exploration, historical and cultural marine heritage preservation, and entertaining science & technology.

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