Mark Caney

I became fascinated with dolphins after an extraordinary experience that started one night on a lonely stretch of desert coast in the Red Sea. There I was fortunate enough to spend many hours alone with a wild dolphin. By the time I left, I wanted to learn more about these incredible creatures.

I have been a diver since I was eighteen, when I started as a hobby while with the British military. When I was 23 I left the services to open a diving centre in Paphos, Cyprus.

I lived abroad for eighteen years and during that time travelled to many countries, training scuba instructors, conducting technical diver training and working on diving related projects. These varied from photo shoots of sharks, running private courses for Arab sheikhs, and conducting a four month expedition to east Africa.

In 1996, I got the job of vice president with PADI (the Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and moved back to the UK to work in their PADI Europe, Middle East and Africa office in Bristol.

I have spent a great deal of my life on or in the sea. In addition to diving frequently, my other main hobby is sailing cruising yachts.

During my life I have been fortunate to have had many encounters with dolphins, and have had the chance to study them in detail. I am also a qualified Marine Mammal Medic with BDMLR.

My novel, Dolphin Way: Rise of the Guardians, was published in 2011.