Pioneering dives of discovery

A priceless archive of historic video shot from the manned research submersible Pisces III in 1973 has been saved in a unique collaboration between marine biologists at the Scottish Association for Marine Science and video preservation experts from the British Film Institute.

In June 1973, Dr. John Wilson and pilot George Colquohoun dived in the Pisces III submersible in search of Lophelia on Rockall Bank. These pioneering dives took video and still images of Lophelia reefs on the Rockall Bank 350 miles offshore and were used by John Wilson in his classic descriptions of Lophelia coral growth and patch development published in 1979.

The video tapes and original recorders were stored for thirty years and thanks to the video restoration experts and engineers at the British Film Institute they have been carefully restored and transferred to modern digital formats.

Click here to watch clips from the Pisces III restored video 

The authors thank Dr. John Wilson for the images and video shown in this section.