RIP: Mike deGruy and Andrew Wight

Less than a week ago, two fellow filmmakers and close friends died together in an helicopter crash off the Australian coast. Australian Andrew Wight and American Mike deGruy were found 97 miles north of Sydney, in Nowra. DeGruy, an Emmy and BAFTA-award winning marine documentary filmmaker, is a fellow Mobilian. Not just any Mobilian, but a card-carrying advocate of the river deltas and bayous that make up our home.



From his website:

Mike deGruy was born on December 29, 1951 in Mobile, Alabama. It was here, at the confluence of 5 rivers, with an amazing delta flowing through rich swamps of alligators, birds of every flavor, fish, deer and snakes, all emptying into Mobile Bay and finally the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, that Mike gained his enthusiasm for the ocean - a love that continues to this day.

We also both eventually left Mobile for the California sun, but that is another story. DeGruy probably spent most of his life convincing people he's not from Louisiana.

Here is deGruy discussing the now infamous BP Gulf Coast oil spill.



Happy Filmmaking!