The underwater community suffered from a huge loss yesterday. Underwater filmmakers Mike deGruy and Andrew Wight died in a helicopter crash yesterday near Nowra, 80 miles south of Sydney. deGruy, 60, and Wight, 52, were reportedly scouting locations for an upcoming project.

I didn’t know Andrew Wight personally, but Mike deGruy’s bottomless excitement and enthusiasm were a huge source of inspiration for me (and for many others, no doubt). We will miss Mike tremendously, and our hearts go out to his family and friends.

For more in-depth information, please check Google News, which links to many articles about the incident.

We leave you with a TED talk that Mike gave in April of 2010. Let’s let his enthusiasm and love for the oceans carry us onward in exploration and discovery.