HANALEI — Local filmmaker and photographer Terry Lilley estimates he has spent over 16,000 hours in the ocean.
Lilley’s explorations include surfing, kayaking, and diving but most notably he has built a career on underwater film and photography.
One of his current projects is a collection of books to accompany his educational underwater film series geared towards students ages 8 to 16. The books feature Lilley’s underwater sea-life photography and pair with movies featuring coral reefs all around the world including Hawai‘i.
He recently completed his newest coffee-table book, “Under the Ocean Blue,” which includes much of Lilley’s sea creature photography and some surf photography. It’s a photographic overview of his multi-country film and photography-documentary project.
“The number one focus is to show people worldwide how many, and what kind of amazing sea creatures we have on this planet,” Lilley said. “For Hawai‘i, I have almost all of the known sea creatures that live in less than 100-feet-deep on video.”
Much of Lilley’s exploring has been on Kaua‘i’s North Shore, taking out his kayak from Hanalei River. He also works with the nonprofit Reef Guardians teaching school children.
“We have taught over 3,000 kids in the past 10 years in the water how to observe and document marine life, and how to document that marine life with underwater cameras,” Lilley said
Lilley’s goal is to provide all the educational videos and books to schools for free.
“In order to protect our ocean, we first have to bring up the awareness on how cool it is,” he continued.
“Under the Ocean Blue” will be available in 2022 for purchase on Lilley’s website underwater2web.com. Lilley’s Hawai‘i fish identification guide can be found on his website for free.
