Robert Wintner is Executive Director of the Snorkel Bob Foundation and owns Snorkel Bob's Hawaii. Some Fishes I Have Known is 300 photos on 200 pages in large format from Skyhorse Publications, NY, and will be out soon.
Wintner works on Hawaii reef recovery. He led legislative campaigns at the Hawaii State Capitol and in Maui County from 2007 through 2010. Passing the State Senate with unanimous consent, the first aquarium bill got derailed in the House by vested interests in leadership and the Executive Branch. These efforts did expose aquarium plunder with a grim consequence: empty reefs in Hawaii. Legislative efforts continue.
The Snorkel Bob Foundation was crucial in a coalition formed to protect the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Papahanaumokuakea Marine Monument. Then came monk seal protection, resulting in State laws to protect Hawaiian monk seals (critically endangered) from abuse, with felony penalties. Recently, the Snorkel Bob Foundation underwrote litigation through Earthjustice, the nonprofit, public-interest law firm, to stop the National Marine Fisheries Service from expanding the Hawaii longline swordfish fishery. The expansion would allow triple the incidental “take” on loggerhead, giant leatherback and hawksbill sea turtles.
Robert Wintner serves on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Board of Advisors and also has sea time on the Ocean Warrior in 2001, bringing international media attention to scurrilous Japanese whaling activity in the Eastern Caribbean during the annual meeting of the International Whaling Conference in London.
Robert Wintner is known in Hawaii’s business community for media against the grain. With these skills applied to the protection of Hawaii reefs, the Snorkel Bob Foundation co-produced a reef etiquette video PSA that airs in hotels and other tourist venues. Wintner also produced a video advocating an end to gillnet fishing, which proved to be a key tool in banning gillnets on Maui.
The Snorkel Bob Foundation focuses on near shore reefs, and Robert Wintner has been the lead advocate for eliminating and/or regulating the aquarium trade in Hawaii. Wintner has been a voice for marine mammals, turtles, reefs and reef citizens for many decades and vows to continue. “It’s a long march. We have no choice but to take the next step.”

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