Kelvin Ewart Tarlton (31 October 1937 – 17 March 1985) was a marine archaeologist and treasure-hunter who established Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in
Auckland
Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
, New Zealand.
Early life, education and family
Tarlton was born on 31 October 1937 in
Te Kōpuru
Te Kōpuru is the largest community on the Pouto Peninsula in Northland Region, Northland, New Zealand. The Wairoa River (Northland), Wairoa River separates the peninsula at this point from the main North Auckland Peninsula to the east. Dargavil ...
in the
Northland Region
Northland (), officially the Northland Region, is the northernmost of New Zealand's 16 regions of New Zealand, local government regions. New Zealanders sometimes refer to it as the Winterless North because of its mild climate all throughout t ...
of New Zealand. His parents were Elsie Alexander and Ewart Fritz Tarlton and he had one sister, Althea. His father was an engineer. They moved to Auckland where he went to Pasadena Intermediate School, although he spent nine months in hospital owing to a reaction to penicillin and a kidney condition. The family moved to
Christchurch
Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
where he attended Christchurch Boys’ High School. On leaving school he qualified as a telephone exchange technician at the Post and Telegraph Department in 1961.
Kelly was married to Rosemary Tarlton from 1965 to his death in 1985. They had two daughters Nicole and Fiona. Kelly's grandson Tane Tarlton was born in 2001.
Connection to the ocean
Recreationally he was a mountaineer and joined the Canterbury Mountaineering Club. He then became a diver joining the Canterbury Underwater Club inspired by Jacques Cousteau's movie ''
The Silent World
''The Silent World'' () is a 1956 French documentary film co-directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle. One of the first films to use underwater cinematography to show the ocean depths in color, its title derives from Cousteau's 1953 book ' ...
.'' His first dive was in 1956. He set a New Zealand
freediving
Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.
Besides the limits of breat ...
record in 1959 at Curious Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, (depth of 24 metres). Over the next few years, Tarlton organised and took part in diving trips in places such as
Wuvulu Island
Wuvulu Island (also known as Mary Island, Matty, Maty Island, Tiger Island, Tiger-Inseln and Wuwulu) is part of the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, part of Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. It is the w ...
and the
Poor Knights Islands
The Poor Knights Islands (Māori: ''Tawhiti Rahi)'' are a group of islands off the east coast of the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. They lie to the northeast of Whangārei, and offshore halfway between Bream Head ...
, moving to live in Whangarei near the Poor Knights, which is now a marine reserve. During these trips Tarlton collected marine specimens, discovered new species, and explored and developed ways of taking photographs and films underwater.
Tarlton became a professional diver in 1966. He worked on construction and also salvaged and explored many shipwrecks in New Zealand waters and around the world including in the late 1970s with
Mel Fisher
Mel Fisher (August 21, 1922 – December 19, 1998) was an American treasure hunter who spent decades treasure hunting in the Florida Keys and is best known for finding the 1622 wreck of the ''Nuestra Señora de Atocha'' in the 1970s.
Early lif ...
looking for treasure in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
galleons
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal.
They were first used as armed cargo carriers by Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail, and they were the principal vessels drafted ...
). In 1974 he and two others found items from the steamer ''Tasmania'' which sank off Mahia Peninsula in 1897. In 1970 and 1975 Tarlton led expeditions to the Auckland Islands in search of the '' General Grant'' shipwreck (1866) and its gold. In 1980 he was part of an international consortium searching for gold bullion in Lutine, sunk off the Netherlands in 1799.
Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World
After his time in the Netherlands, Tarlton decided to build a new style of aquarium. The attraction was constructed in a collection of disused municipal stormwater and sewerage tanks in Auckland, and opened by Tarlton in 1985, as Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World. The design of the aquarium was innovative at the time. Prior to its construction, aquariums typically had tanks with flat glass fronts for visitors to look through. Tarlton's design, with its curved acrylic tunnels underwater that visitors go through on a conveyor belt, looking all around at the underwater life in the tanks, has been influential for many aquariums overseas. The aquarium was designed to replicate a reef zone from the
Hauraki Gulf
The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,
Kelly Tarlton's Museum of Shipwrecks
Tarlton converted the old sugar lighter 'Tui' into a Museum of Shipwrecks tourist attraction after relocating the barque to Waitangi, Northland, Waitangi, then undertaking extensive renovations, adding masts and rigging. Artefacts displayed in the museum were recovered off New Zealand shipwrecks from expeditions led by Kelly with his dive team, such as th Rothschild's Jewels from the Tasmania gold and silver coins from the
SS Elingamite
SS ''Elingamite'' was an Australian passenger steamer of 2,585 tons, built in 1887, and owned by Huddart Parker. The ship was wrecked on 9 November 1902 off the north coast of New Zealand carrying a large consignment of gold. The wreck is now ...
and a cannon off th shipwrecked L'Alcmène
The museum won two national tourism awards and closed in 2002:
* 1974 Busk Cup for the most outstanding contribution to Tourism in Northland
* 1977 Tourism Design Award for meritorious planning of a tourist facility, from the NZ Minister of Tourism
The Tui was demolished after suspicious early morning fire on 4 June 2025 started in the rear of the ship. At the time the Tui was owned by
Kerikeri
Kerikeri () is a town in the Bay of Islands, in the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It lies at the head of Kerikeri Inlet, a northwestern arm of the Bay of Islands, where fresh water of the Kerikeri River enters the Paci ...
In 1974 Kelly Tarlton was the first to locate one of the three massive anchors dropped by French explorer Jean de Surville off his ship St Jean Baptiste in Doubtless Bay in 1769. This de Surville anchor is mounted on the entrance wall of
Te Papa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa (Māori language, Māori for 'Waka huia, the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the Nation ...
. That anchor and its twin anchor are the earliest authenticated European artefacts in New Zealand. Tarlton located a third de Surville anchor in 1982 which remains on the seabed.
New Zealand Business Hall of Fame
The New Zealand Business Hall of Fame is a figurative hall of fame dedicated to New Zealanders who have made a significant contribution to the economic and social development of New Zealand. The hall was established in 1994 by the Young Enterpri ...
in Auckland in 2023.
Death
Tarlton died unexpectedly from a heart condition in 1985 only seven weeks after Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World was opened.