Richard Fitzpatrick(II)

Richard Fitzpatrick's fascination for sharks started at the early age of 11, when he caught and brought home an epaulette shark. After that, his weekends were spent in the ocean, exploring and discovering more about the underwater creatures he saw. Richard completed his BSc at James Cook University in 1991 and funded his studies working at Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville. After graduating university, he became the senior biologist at Ocean World Aquarium in Manly, Sydney.

Fitzpatrick has filmed for clients such as the BBC, National Geographic and Discovery Channel and has been both the skill behind the camera as well as the subject of numerous underwater documentaries. Known for his unique pioneering techniques for catching sharks by the tail, one of Fitzpatrick's inventions - the shark claw - was profiled on the ABC's show New Inventors. He has been the instigator of many shark tagging programs, including the first successful satellite tagging of a tiger shark in 2002.

In 2013, Fitzpatrick, along with IT entrepreneur Bevan Slattery, founded Biopixel - one of Australia's premiere filming companies specialising in natural history behavioural sequences and boasting one of the world's largest high definition stock vision libraries of Indo-Pacific reef life. Biopixel aims to promote the uniqueness, diversity and conservation of nature through the development of entertaining, engaging and educational visual content of the highest quality by utilising the latest filming equipment including 6K and high-speed cameras, virtual reality and 3D.

In 2014, Fitzpatrick was awarded an ACS accreditation by the Australian Cinematographers Society and instigated the world's first underwater Google+ hangout.