Ron Bates Receives Tourism Victoria's 2008 Environment Award

Tourism Victoria today announced that our friend Ron Bates was chosen as the recipient of their 2008 Environment Award in the "Individual" category:

"Ron Bates, Marine Mammal Research Group, for his life-long commitment to understanding area Orcas and sharing his passion for conservation and stewardship with visitors and residents".

Ron's nomination received tremendous support from many Captains, Marine Naturalists, Marine Mammal Observers, Fisheries Observers and Scientists in Environmental and Marine Mammal Research. It is incredible the number and quality of people whom Ron has guided, prodded and challenged over the years. We consider ourselves very lucky to continually be pushed by Ron to be better.

We at Five Star Whale Watching are blessed to have the opportunity to spend so much time with and learn so much from Ron. But make no mistake, Ron is and will always remain staunchly independent. Ron can be difficult/challenging, critical/inspiring, brutally honest/humorous but most importantly he will always be "Ron".

Congratulations, Ron!