Interview: Andrew Penniket talks about Whales, Snails and Lobster Tales

Andrew Penniket is an award-winning underwater cameraman and documentary maker whose career has spanned four decades. Since starting with TVNZ’s Natural History Unit in Dunedin, his work has featured in acclaimed international productions for many broadcasters, including BBC, National Geographic, NHNZ and Discovery Channel. Trained as a biologist, Andrew has combined extensive knowledge of marine life with an artist’s eye, developing a reputation for capturing intimate, behaviour-driven sequences that reveal both the beauty and mystery of underwater life, from the midnight rambles of lobsters to the cooperative hunting of orca tribes. His images and films have been widely used to support marine protected areas, and he is a staunch advocate for increased conservation in the sea. Andrew talks to NZ Booklovers.

Tell us a little about Whales, Snails and Lobster Tales.

This book draws on diving adventures across the South Seas, from witnessing the majesty of life under the Antarctic ice to being defecated on by a sperm whale in Tonga. I dance with swimming snails at Kaikōura and reveal the intimate lives of lobsters in the dead of night. These are stories of sea-loving people and remote places, great success and total failure. I reveal the challenges of filming octopus and the trials of following an orca tribe around New Zealand. I journey to the bottom of Milford Sound, get squashed by a submersible in the Marlborough Sounds and witness one of nature’s greatest spectacles — the courtship of giant cuttlefish, the peacocks of the sea. I voyage to remote volcanoes to film their tame grouper and take us cave diving inside mountains. That's just a small taste of this book.

What inspired you to write this book?

I wanted to record some of my many experiences from nearly 40 years of filming underwater in the South Seas for television programmes. I wanted to share my stories with family, friends and everyone interested in the sea.

What research was involved?

Most research was done before I even started filming a documentary. One of the films, Tale of the Crayfish, followed the PhD studies of Alison MacDiarmid who mapped three hectares of seafloor at Goat Island Marine Reserve. She tagged 430 individual crayfish and followed them for three years, measuring growth and making many discoveries about their life under the sea. That was when I discovered the enormous benefits of marine reserves.

Another documentary, Under the Ice, followed the investigations of Dr Chris Battershill into weird sponge communities on the seafloor under the ice in Antarctica. It’s a place of unbelievable beauty - ice caves,  giant sponges and the majestic Weddell seals and their other-worldly calls.

What was your routine or process when writing this book?

I actually started the book in 2004 and wrote it in bursts, often on rainy days. I find writing for two or three hours each morning was the best approach.

If you had to choose a couple of your favourite stories from the book what would they be, and why?

It’s not my favourite experience  but everyone likes hearing about how I got defecated on by a large bull sperm whale in Tonga. It was asleep and suddenly awoke and evacuated its bowels right in front of me. I was covered in green and orange slime.

Another was being in the midst of a pod of seven orca trying to extract a stingray from under a rock.  A surge pushed us all together and I suddenly felt very vulnerable but they quietly filed past me back into the depths.

One more was with a large bull sea lion at the Auckland Islands. He was very friendly and I reached my hand out to him. He gently mouthed it then gave my finger a quick pinch. I quickly withdrew my hand and I am sure he smiled.

If a soundtrack were made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.

Weddell seal calls under the ice in Antarctica. They are absolutely amazing. Like nothing else on this on this planet. I could listen to them all day

What did you enjoy the most about writing this book?

Apart from finishing it, reliving some of my experiences and then having a highly respected publisher say they really enjoyed it.

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

Collapsed, then opened a bottle of Quartz Reef bubbles.

What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?

Swirly World Lost at Sea by Andrew Fagan. A heroic and fascinating story told really well.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

A second book covering more underwater stories, from filming freshwater seals in Lake Baikal and otters at the Aleutian Islands to diving among radioactive Hellcat planes in the bowls of an aircraft carrier at the bottom of Bikini Atoll lagoon.