ACS 2004 Whale Hero Awards

PENNI JO LAKING joined the Whalewatch program soon after her first whale watching trip 25 years ago and has since served pretty much continuously on the Whalewatch advisory board, on the ACS/LA board and the ACS National board. She has served multiple terms as ACS/LA President and Vice-president, and she made her mark with the ACS/LA sales table and the ACS/LA trips. Penni Jo has been a fixture at and a driving force behind practically all ACS activities for the past 20 years.

KEN BALCOMB, a pioneer whale researcher was thrust into the limelight of whale conservation when he was twice present in areas where military sonar profoundly affected cetaceans. He not only made sure that all possible data was obtained and analyzed from these incidents, he also stood up and made the findings public. Ken was criticized by members of the scientific community who felt that his role should be limited to research, but he followed his conscience and continued to make the truth be heard. See the page on strandings for more information on some of Ken's work.

BOB TALBOT is one of the best known marine life photographers in the world. There is a strong conservation message that permeates Bob's body of work, he supports numerous conservation groups through consistently generous donations and uses his website, www.talbotcollection.com to promote organizations in which he believes.

As a world renowned marine photographer, award-winning filmmaker and dedicated environmentalist, Bob Talbot has combined his unique visual style and storytelling ability with state-of-the-art entertainment technologies to create intimate ocean experiences on film.

His photographs of whales and dolphins have been reproduced into millions of lithographs distributed around the world, and his motion picture work has appeared in many television, film and special venue productions. Talbot filmed the wildlife sequences for the Warner Bros. series of FREE WILLY feature films and Universal Pictures' FLIPPER. He directed and photographed the IMAX&® RidefilmTM motion simulation system film DOLPHINS - THE RIDE, and acted as a director and cinematographer for sequences in the Academy Award-nominated MacGillivray Freeman IMAX® film, DOLPHINS.

Most recently, Talbot directed and photographed the award-winning IMAX® film OCEANMEN - EXTREME DIVE about world champion free divers Pipin Ferreras and Umberto Pelizzari.

Talbot is a recipient of The Environmental Hero Award presented by the United States Department of Commerce, as well as the Ark Trust Genesis Award. In 2004 he was presented with International SeaKeepers Society's prestigious SeaKeeper Award by HSH Prince Albert of Monaco.

Talbot has worked on several Cousteau Society productions, and continues to collaborate with Jean Michel Cousteau on Ocean Futures projects. He serves on the board of governors for Oceana, on the boards of The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Earth Communications Office. Talbot also works with many other environmental groups on marine conservation issues.

Currently Talbot is embarking on what he feels is the most important work of his life - The LegaSea Project (www.LegaSeaProject.org) This multi-year, global endeavor will address the rapid decline in the health of the world-ocean in a series of mainstream entertainment properties that will bring attention to ocean issues while creating a high resolution, poetically shot motion picture archive.