Marine Biology

Perry’s Blog

Marine Biology

I am a highly qualified bloke with letters after my name, don’t you know!

Not only am I entitled to use the designators letters “AIExpE” as an Associate Member of the Institute of Explosives Engineers; I also graduated from Portsmouth University with a BSc (Hons) in Biology. I specialised in Marine Biology, and am an expert in the feeding habits of Dicentrachus labrax.

In my career in the film and television industry, I use my qualifications in explosives on a regular basis… but my degree in Biology has been of use only once.

I was working as an assistant Production Buyer on Peter McDougal’s epic “Down Where the Buffalo Go.” Mike Ireland, the prop buyer, had secured a period motor torpedo boat for the production, and in one scene Harvey Keitel was required to be hanging over the gunwales, looking into the water, observing a jelly fish calmly gliding by.

As a new boy, I thought I’d make my mark by helping out with the rather difficult job of acquiring such a creature. So I volunteered to phone up my old professor from Portsmouth, Dr Mike Culley, to ask his advice.  “Perry, its October mate: you should know it’s the wrong time of year for Cyanea lamarcki to be blooming.” Yeah, I should have known that!

So Dr Culley suggested he send me up a preserved specimen and that we use that instead of a live one.  Jellyfish are notoriously difficult to train anyway, so I readily agreed to his idea.

A couple of days later the animal arrived and we used it successfully… with a few very cleverly attached nylon lines to represent a live animal pulsating through shot.

I am indeed a genius!