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Funkhouser internationally renowned photographer

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By JACK PALMER

palmer@crescent-news.com

Lynn Funkhouser hails from Napoleon, but it's not home.

She attended college in Bowling Green, but it's not home. She's lived in Chicago since the mid-1960s, but it's not home.

Home is the blue waters around the Philippine Islands -- 100 feet or more beneath the surface.

With a camera.

"I've spent two months every year since 1976 diving in the Philippines," said Funkhouser, an internationally renowned photographer, author, lecturer, environmentalist and leader in dive travel.

"It's a passion, but also a curse."

Funkhouser's underwater images over her remarkable career, which reflect her tireless commitment to foster action through awareness and appreciation, were rewarded in 2000 with her selection to the inaugural class of the Women Divers Hall of Fame in New York City.

"The Philippine Islands are noted for having the greatest species diversification in the world," said Funkhouser, who returned to her northwest Ohio roots this weekend to receive the "Accomplished Graduate Award" from Bowling Green State University.

"There are 2,500 species of fish in the Philippines, compared to 1,500 in Australia and 460 in Hawaii. The further away you go from the Coral Triangle, the fewer the species."

The Coral Triangle encompasses the Sulu and Sulawesi Seas, which is surrounded by Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The area is also famous for its rich variety of coral reef and plant life.

"The divemasters who accompany me are expert creature finders," she said. "You shoot one thing and they find something else. I just love seeing different kinds of species."

Funkhouser said there is no better feeling than "diving with a wild dolphin that accepts you" or diving with false killer whales.

"Another thrill is diving the waters around Dumaguete (a city in the Philippines). They are loaded with soft coral, with so many fish and so much color. It's just gorgeous."

Funkhouser, daughter of the late Paul and Evelyn Funkhouser, is a 1960 graduate of Napoleon High School. After earning her degree from BGSU, she went to work as a flight attendant for TransWorld Airlines (TWA).

"I had never been on an airplane," she recalled Friday during an interview at the rural Okolona home of her sister, Elaine Hohenberger. "But once I started, I traveled the world."

She discovered diving in 1967. An obsession with underwater photography quickly followed.

"We flew 12 days out of every month, so I scrunched my flying schedule together so I could spend more time in the water. I flew to support my diving."

Funkhouser quickly became a women pioneer in the field of underwater photography.

"I started when no one else was doing it," she said. "Back in 1967, there were very few women divers. I remember once going out on a diving trip with a group of 12 Chinese men."

By the mid-70s, she had fallen in love with the Philippines.

"I'm going this year from April 16 to June 18," she said. "Through the years I've shot so many underwater photographs it's ridiculous. It's probably in the hundreds of thousands."

She's ventured as far down as 300 feet, although she admitted those days are over.

"That was probably not good for me, but I had to test my limits," explained Funkhouser. "The longest I stayed down on a steel tank was three hours and 15 minutes.

"The technology is so much better now," she continued. "When I started there were no gauges, no buoyancy compensator devices (BCDs) and no computers. I wear two computers now, one on my wrist and another on my tank. I really haven't had any close calls."

Funkhouser, who worked for TWA from 1965-2002 and American Airlines from 2002-05, was one of the founders of the International Marinelife Alliance (IMA). She is member of League of Underwater Photographers, serving as president from 1993-96.

She is the recipient of the "Lifetime Achievement Award" from The Philippine Aquatic and Marinelife Conservationists' Association, Inc., for her "outstanding contributions on behalf of the conservation and preservation of the marine environment of the Philippines."

Funkhouser is also proud of her role as consultant to John G. Shedd Aquarium of Chicago's spectacular Wild Reef Exhibit, a $49 million, 15,000 square feet permanent exhibit which opened in 2003.

"I try to educate," she said. "I want people to know and appreciate our underwater beauty."

That task has been made more difficult in recent decades by destructive fishing methods, including the use of cyanide and dynamite which have destroyed large sections of coral and depleted fish populations. Estimates suggest 70-90 percent of aquarium fish exported to the U.S. from the Philippines are caught with cyanide.

"We need to get rid of the cyanide fishing and blast fisherman," she stated. "These methods are very destructive to the surrounding ecosystem. We've pretty much cleaned them out of Philippines, but they are in Indonesia now."

Funkhouser also remains concerned about high sea surface temperatures coupled with high irradiance, known to be the primary factor in summer coral bleaching (the loss of color of corals).

"I saw the dangers of global warming long before Al Gore," she stated. "It's absolutely terrifying. If you do not believe in global warming, you are not a diver."

Funkhouser, recalling the massive June 1998 bleaching event that was worldwide, said the situation has only become worse.

"We have to do something to address global warming. We've sat on our hands the last eight years. This is our oxygen, this is our fish supply. We're going to lose it."

She admitted to being less optimistic than other environmentalists.

"I'm glad I'm old because this next generation won't experience what I have," she stated. "As an underwater photographer, I had the best of it.

"I couldn't have been born at a better time."