TWO Basingstoke scuba divers have won a top Royal Honour after their team’s underwater video project revealed the parenting secrets of one of Britain’s most iconic sea fish species.

British Sub-Aqua Club divers Martin and Sheilah Openshaw, 60 and 57, received The Duke of Edinburgh Sub-Aqua prize, after their team’s rare underwater camera footage proved male black bream are vital to protecting the nests of their young. The annual award was presented to the group at Buckingham Palace by HRH Duke of Edinburgh.

The Black Bream Project was led by Dr Matt Doggett, a self-employed marine ecologist and wildlife photographer, who is an independent BSAC member, and lives in Southampton. The project has been on the go since April 2015.

The team’s stills and video, taken by laying hidden cameras carefully among black bream nests along the Dorset coast show how the male fish are vital in parental care.

The findings are so important that some within the sea angling community along the south coast are already adapting their fishing practices by returning male fish to the water during the important nesting season.

Sheilah said: “It’s been absolutely fascinating. There’s more known about certain aspects of outer space than a lot of what goes on in our oceans, and this was something that had simply not been researched before. It was an honour to meet Prince Philip and receive the Duke of Edinburgh SubAqua prize. It was also fascinating to visit Buckingham Palace and see the room behind the balcony.”

Fellow bream team member Dr Matt Doggett said: “It was quite an experience to go to Buckingham Palace. Prince Philip was remarkably chatty and spoke to us for about 10 minutes. He was really interested in what we’d been doing.”

The two divers are members of Basingstoke 609 Sub-Aqua Club, a branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC), which is the UK governing body for scuba diving and has more than 30,000 members.