Born in Shropshire but now based on Sark, Sue Daly is an award-winning wildlife filmmaker and photographer.
- “I endured one and a half hours submerged in the freezing water, with only my head visible.”
- “The waves were several metres high and I was so sick. I got to know the boat’s ‘puke hole’ very well – but I still got the footage I needed!“
How did your career start?
My interest in marine life began in 1988, when I was learning to dive off the Channel Island of Jersey. I was fascinated by the creatures I saw and wanted to photograph them in more detail.
Which of your images is most significant to you?
A shot of a juvenile crawfish that I took in May 2014, off my home island of Sark. It was the first time I’d ever seen a juvenile of this rare crustacean, which was fished to commercial extinction in the Channel Islands in the 1960s and 70s.
In 2014, the species started to make an unexplained recovery off the south and west of the British Isles, and I worked to get it protected off Sark by 2018. The image reminds me that overfished species can recover, but need our protection to flourish.
- Like to dive? Check out these extraordinarily beautiful underwater statues teeming with wildlife
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What has been your most memorable project?
Working in the waters around the Poor Knights Islands in New Zealand. The area has been a protected marine reserve for decades, and diving there is like swimming in a living fish soup. It’s an amazing example of how rich marine life can be when we don’t eat it all.
What’s been your biggest challenge?
Photographing the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa in Norway. It’s bright white and looks as if it’s made of porcelain. It normally lives in very deep water, but in Trondheim Fjord you can find it at 40m. Even at this depth you only have a few minutes of dive time and this, with the cold, made it quite a challenge.
What’s been your most memorable experience with wildlife?
Filming Atlantic grey seals in the Farne Islands has to be the most fun I’ve had underwater. It’s like diving with a bunch of playful Labrador puppies. They are so fast and agile, and make even the most graceful human diver feel very clumsy underwater.
What’s been your most hairy shoot?
I was once working on a BBC Natural World film about the Channel Islands. The director wanted to show the power of the tides, so the cameraman and I dived the narrow passage between Sark and the tiny island of Brecqhou while the tide was running at full tilt.
The kelp was horizontal, the current was swirling in all directions and at one point my buddy’s bubbles were circling around him then heading downwards. Not a sight any diver wants to see...
Any epic fails to share?
I once completely flooded my camera on my very first dive of a two-week trip to the Galápagos Islands. I had a back-up, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the one I drowned.
Which species are on your bucket list?
Abroad, a weedy sea-dragon – an elaborate relative of the seahorse that lives off the southern coast of Australia.
At home, an octopus. I’ve seen them elsewhere in the British Isles but not in the Channel Islands. They were once common here, but were wiped out by the very cold winter of 1962-3, when the edge of the sea froze. They have started to make a comeback in recent years.
What sort of discomfort do you regularly have to endure?
Being on a small boat in a drysuit is tricky when it comes to needing the loo. Men have a handy zip, but for women there’s no option other than to peel the whole thing off, lower your backside over the gunwale and ask your companions to look away.
What item would you not be without?
Tea. And chocolate biscuits.
Any top tips for budding photographers?
Get to know your subject. What does it feed on, what time of day is it most active, how can you approach without disturbing it? Even if you don’t shoot a single frame, you always learn something when you spend time watching wildlife.
Find more of Sue's work on her website.
- "I was attacked by a swarm of wasps in a bamboo forest in South Korea. I still remember how fast I had to run."
- "First, it crawled around on the roof. Then it started pushing and clawing at the windows..."
- “I was so focused on taking photos that I didn’t realise I was sinking into quicksand.”
- "I was once charged by a musk ox – and they can shift. Fortunately, I could shift faster than the photographer I was with..."