David Fleetham was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1958. He grew up in Ontario, Canada just outside of Toronto and in his last year of high school he learned to scuba dive in a man-made lake. Soon after he purchased an Ikelite housing and a Minolta SLR camera and spent three months in the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean. With his eyes wide open he returned to land locked Ontario just long enough to pack his bags and move back to Canada's west coast. Here David worked in several dive businesses, became a scuba instructor and continued focusing on his passion: underwater photography. His first published photo was during this time. It was a cover on Diver magazine where David's images and articles still appear to this date. He acknowledges Neil McDaniel (then editor of Diver magazine) and his photography as one of his first influences: In 1986 David left Vancouver for the island of Maui, Hawaii where he again worked in various dive charter businesses and earned a USCG Captain's license, all the while shooting and submitting his underwater images to magazines and businesses. David was approached by his first stock agency shortly after coming to Hawaii and now has galleries and agents in over 50 countries that reproduce his images thousands of times each year. From Hawaii, David has been on assignments to 22 locations in Indonesia, The Galapagos Islands, Saipan, Truk Lagoon, Fiji, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Palau, Yap, Guam, Kwajalein Atoll, Pohnpei, the Philippines, Honduras, Bahamas, Australia, the Sea of Cortez, the Red Sea, the Socorro Islands and back to the cold waters of British Columbia. Prior to receiving his own assignments from National Geographic, the magazine hired David to escort professional underwater photographer David Doubilet while on assignment in Hawaii. Fleetham recognizes Doubilet's work as another influence on his career:
