Donnie Reid

Donnie Reid

Expertise: Underwater Photography & Scientific Diving
Affiliation: Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre
Certification/Education:
Instructor Trainer, Scuba Schools International Canada (current)
CAUS Scientific Diver Instructor
Full Cave Diver, NACS
Trimix Diver, IANTD
Occupationally Certified Diver, WCB

Donnie has been diving for the past 25 years, primarily in the coastal waters of British Columbia. Over the first 10 years, he was heavily involved in dive instruction, having certified over 2000 entry-level divers. During this time he became involved in underwater photography under the mentoring of world-renowned underwater photographer Neil McDaniel.

Donnie has been a member of numerous scientific projects and expeditions -

  1. 1995: deep-water photographer for an expedition to the wreck of the Transpac. Images and article by him appeared in the technical diving magazine, Immersed.
  2. 1996: became full cave diver and was certified to photograph caves in the Yucatan for Diver Magazine.
  3. 1997: photographer for a project in eastern British Columbia studying turn-of-the-century wrecks in Kootenay Lake.
  4. 2000: Cover photo for the journal, Nature: 407 (6804) and photography for Pavilion Lake article.
  5. 2000: photographer/writer for an article on the wreck of the SS Yongala for Diver Magazine.
  6. 2003: photographer for an expedition to the Bowie Seamount.
  7. 2004: photographer for the MATE ROV National Competition at UCSB.
  8. 2004 to present: photographer and diving safety officer for the Pavilion Lake Research Project.
  9. 2006: photographer/diving safety officer for field trip to Lago Sarmiento, Chile
  10. 2008: Project Manager for submersible operations at Pavilion Lake

From the summer of 2000 until present, Donnie has been the Diving Safety Officer for the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. As DSO, his responsibilities are the development and monitoring of the science diving programme for the Aquarium. This entails maintaining the diving authorization for over 30 divers, ensuring that the diving programme meets CAUS and WCB regulations to running the dive show Underwater BC.

Donnie became involved with the research in Pavilion Lake in 1997 when he was asked by a friend to photograph the "freshwater corals" in the Lake. He returned to Pavilion Lake with a team of researchers in 1998, which led to the October 2000 Nature paper. In 2004 Drs. Darlene Lim and Bernard Laval asked him to be the Dive Safety Officer and photographer for the Pavilion Lake Research Project.

Donnie became Project Manager of the submarine operations in 2008 when the PLRP introduced DeepWorker Submersibles to Pavilion Lake.