Marine expert David Pawson delves into deep

Napier Beach where David Pawson started his love for the ocean in the 1950's.

For Smithsonian Institution senior research scientist David Pawson the mysteries and wonders of marine life began to spark his imagination when he swam and fished off the Napier beach back in the 1950s.

Now he is set to return to his old seafront stamping grounds and is scheduled to deliver a talk on New Zealand deep-sea exploration between 1865 and 1965 at the MTG Century Theatre on Sunday, March 23.

While he has been with the US-based Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History since 1964, Mr Pawson has travelled and explored the oceans widely and has maintained research programmes in New Zealand.

His talk will draw on knowledge of New Zealand deep-sea research, including his personal experiences in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as accounts of many of his expeditions - some involving Hawke's Bay.

"Exploration of the deep sea is always exciting and sometimes dangerous - especially in the New Zealand region."

Mr Pawson grew up in Napier, attending St Joseph's and Marist primary schools before doing his secondary years at St John's High School in Hastings.

He said it was his love of swimming and fishing which led to what became a lifelong devotion to marine research and marine life. After gaining a BSc, MSc, and PhD in Zoology from Victoria University he joined the Victoria University deep-sea research team in the 1950s, a time when ground-breaking deep sea research was being undertaken.

His expertise caught the attention of leading scientists at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and he was invited to take on a role there as a research curator.

He has carried out specialist programmes involving echinoderms - sea urchins, starfish and their relative species and has subsequently made more than 200 dives in manned submersibles across the globe - carrying out expeditions in the Caribbean, the southern oceans, the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica.

While he has presented more than 200 talks and public lectures through the years, Napier will be his only speaking engagement in New Zealand during this visit.

MTG public programmes team leader Eloise Wallace said, "It is not often Hawke's Bay plays host to a speaker of such calibre. Dr Pawson works at one of the world's pre-eminent natural history museums and we jumped at the chance to host him."