Nuno Sá
Nuno Sá was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1977. In 1988 he returned with his family to Portugal at the age of eleven. His late contact with the underwater world started in 1997, already as a law student in Lisbon, when he took his first dive certification. He graduated in Law in one Portugal’s top universities – Universidade Católica Portuguesa in 2001. In the following year he moved to the Azores, São Miguel island, to pursue his goal of a life
in direct contact with the sea … and with the dream of one day becoming an underwater photographer or videography.
After several years working aboard whale watching boats and as a divemaster while studying marine biology in the University of the Azores, he became a professional underwater photographer in 2008. Specialized in marine wildlife and conservation photography he published six books, as well as several dozens of articles, as a regular contributor to several national and international magazines, such as National Geographic Portugal, Dive Magazine, Scuba Diving Magazine, among many others.
A member of the International Environment Photographers Association (IEPA), he has had images on display in some of the world’s largest natural history museums such as the London Natural History Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, in Washington.
In his curriculum, there are about twenty awards in some of the main international nature photography contests, such as Wildlife Photographer of the Year, the largest and most prestigious wildlife photography contest worldwide, as well as winning the Underwater Photographer of the year title in 2015, and winner of the Oceans category of the Nature’s Best Photography 2011contest (the largest nature photography contest in the USA). In
2017 he was part of the National team that won the world photographic championship – World Photographic Cup.
An active conservationist in promoting the conservation of marine life since his early days of photography, he was actively involved invarious actions to promote the richness and biodiversity of the waters of the Portugal, for example he was the main driver of the creation of the Underwater Archaeological Park of the second world war wreck – Dori – on the island of São Miguel. Or in the creation of marine protected areas of the Pico-Faial channel, as
well as in several initiatives for the protection of species of Atlantic sharks.
His large-format photography exhibition, Oásis by Nuno Sá, opened at the Lisbon Oceanarium and has been seen by more than half a million people, traveling from North to South of Portugal and several countries such as the USA, Germany and Italy.
Nuno is regularly invited as a speaker to different audiences to share his views on the richness and biodiversity of the Portuguese Sea and the role we all play in its conservation.
In 2012 Nuno Sá embarked on a new communication area, betting on video as a tool for the promotion of environmental awareness, creating the first national production company specialized in underwater images in Ultra High Definition – Atlantic Ridge
Productions. He has since then worked regularly as a camera operator or director of photography for many of the biggest international television channels such as BBC, National
Geographic Channel, Netflix, Disney etc… that has allowed him to live extreme experiences in the 5 continents of the world. Such as spending a month in a remote area of the Colombian jungle diving with humpback whales, diving in Antarctica with Orcas, diving with sharks in the Bahamas, Whale sharks in Kenya, with orcas and humpback whales in the icy waters of Norway, with Southern Right Whales in Argentina or some of the world’s most
remote Islands such as Malpelo, Selvagens Islands or Desertas Islands.
A full time cameraman since 2015, on the next year he was part of the team of underwater cinematographers that produced one of the most iconic series about marine life ever produced worldwide, the BBC series – Blue Planet 2, having been awarded in 2018 with a BAFTA award as well as a Panda award for your participation in this series.
Between 2017 and 2019 he divided his time between participation as an underwater cinematographer for major international productions and the production of the first major series about the Sea of Portugal, the series “Sea, the last frontier” in partnership with Oceanário de Lisboa and Fundação Oceano Azul, that is currently being show on chanels RTP1 and RTP3.
In recent years he has been part of several major international productions such as Netflix “Our Oceans”, BBC – Mammals or Disney/National Geographic Ocean Explorers (the latter directed by James Cameron).
Recently, in 2019 he was awarded the Insígnia Autonomica de Reconhecimento by the Regional Government of the Azores, for his active role in promoting the conservation of marine life in the Azores, as well as being distinguished at the Excellens Mare Awards with the NATURA MARE 2019 award. Nuno Sá is also an ambassador for Mares doing equipment brand, Seiko watches,WWF and ANP.
