Peter Hughes clearly remembers the moment he first fell in love with diving years ago: A chance encounter with Bill and Ann Petry—who were visiting Tobago to set up Camp Crusoe, a watersports summer camp for teenage boys—kicked off what would eventually become a lifelong obsession and career.

“My dad had given me Jacques Cousteau’s The Silent World for my 10th birthday, and Bill promised that if I read the book, he would teach me to dive,” Hughes says. It clearly worked and set him on a course aimed directly toward the sea.

After a brief apprenticeship at Texaco, Hughes couldn’t get the ocean out of his head and moved to Tobago in 1968 to work in the recreational dive business full-time.

He taught at the Petrys’ camp for several years before moving to Roatan, Honduras, in 1971, where he converted Anthony’s Key from a stopover for sailboats into the beloved dive resort it remains today.

In 1977, Hughes and his wife, Alice, founded Dive Bonaire, which would eventually become the model of the modern dive resort. There, they implemented revolutionary ideas that today’s divers often take for granted, such as fill stations on boats and benches with cylinder racks.

The couple were also among the first to use dive-site moorings to reduce anchor damage. They championed the idea that scuba diving should be an inclusive sport, not just reserved for professionals, which helped shape the industry into its present state.

In 1985, Hughes sold Dive Bonaire to Divi Resorts and became the vice president of their marine sports division until he left to start Peter Hughes Diving, Inc. in 1990.

A leader in the liveaboard industry, Hughes turned his Dancer Fleet into the world’s first luxury liveaboard company and expanded it internationally before selling the business.

In 2018, he was inducted into the 2018 Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS) Fellow Program with a NOGI Award for Distinguished Service at DEMA 2017, a rare honor also bestowed on the man who sparked his initial curiosity about the marine world: Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Question: When you began working in the dive industry, scuba was gaining popularity as a recreational sport but still catered to a specific type of customer. Can you talk about how you and Alice contributed to making diving more inclusive?

Answer: It all started in 1975 when my wife and I owned a dive shop in Bonaire. Back then, everybody who came through the dive shop was a man, and their wives sat on the beach having cocktails. There was a huge market out there. We were the first to carry people’s gear and load the boats.

Then, when we got into the liveaboards, we applied the same principles. My wife should be in the Women Divers Hall of Fame. Nobody gives her the credit she deserves because I’ve always been the guy out front. But she was the brains—I was just following orders.

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Q You’ve had a lot of accomplishments in more than 60 years of diving. Is there one moment that stands out to you as a professional highlight?

A I was very proud of the work we did in Bonaire because we changed land-based diving around the world. We just came up with simple boat designs—like tanks on the back of the benches—that people take for granted now. But it was really industry-changing back then.

Q Is there a place in the Caribbean where you still love to dive?

A Tobago is one of the few places doing quite well. I think the reason for that is the island is flanked on one side by the Caribbean Sea and by the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Then the island is engulfed by runoff from the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, which makes the reefs flourish with nutrients. They also don’t get cruise ships.

Q What’s the best advice you’ve been given that’s helped you as a professional diver?

A I think it’s the adage that you should think of people before you think of your profit. I always tried to put my guests or my employees ahead of the bottom line. I’d have retired richer if I’d done it the other way around.

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Milestone Moment

Hughes turned his attention to liveaboards and acquired his first boat, the Sea Dancer, through savvy negotiating (and a little luck) when his employer, Divi Resorts, suffered financial setbacks in the late 1980s. While some executives sued to guarantee their golden parachutes, Hughes seized the opportunity for a fresh start. “My contract was up, and Divi Resorts was supposed to pay me a lot of money, which they couldn’t. So they offered to let me buy the company’s boat for pennies instead. Then I was in business with Peter Hughes Diving.”

At that time, liveaboards were a novelty in the industry, meant for rough-and-tumble dive enthusiasts. Hughes and his wife envisioned the potential to make travel at sea more comfortable and appealing with thoughtful amenities like coffee wake-up service in your cabin, cozy bathrobes and housekeeping. Soon, they invested in a bigger boat, the Wave Dancer, that they converted to have natural light in every room, twin and queen beds instead of bunk beds, and ensuite bathrooms. “The Wave Dancer set the standard of what the liveaboard industry is today,” he says. “I’m blown away by what they are building now.”