Hans Hass
| Hans Hass | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
23 January 1919 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 16 June 2013 (aged 94) |
| Occupation | Underwater diver, Documentary filmmaker |
Hans Hass (23 January 1919 – 16 June 2013) was an Austrian biologist and underwater diving pioneer. He was known mainly for being among the first scientists to popularise coral reefs, stingrays and sharks. He pioneered the making of documentaries filmed underwater. He led development of the aqualung and of a type of rebreather. He is known, too, for his energon theory and his commitment to protecting the environment.
Hass was born in Vienna; his father was an attorney and Hass initially pursued law. However, Hass had a formative encounter with the American diver Guy Gilpatric while on a Riviera holiday in 1938 which included underwater hunting and photography. After making expeditions to the Caribbean Sea 1938-39 and writing his first professional articles, in 1940 Hass switched from reading law to zoology studies and graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1943 at the Faculty of Biology. His thesis was the first scientific research using an autonomous rebreather diving equipment. In his early diving he used rebreathers, which he had made for him by the German diving gear makers Dräger: he had these sets made with the breathing bag on his back, as he did not like the bag-on-chest "frogman look". Hass and his team of researchers logged over 2000 dives utilising oxygen rebreathers from 1942 to 1953.
Although, in a book by Callum Roberts, Don Stewart, one of the first scuba operators on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, blames Hass for single-handedly hunting the Atlantic goliath grouper to local extinction, the author clearly refutes that claim later in the same paragraph.
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