REG Lipson has spent more than 10,000 hours under water studying the bizarre sex lives of some of the world's most mysterious marine creatures.The veteran diver, zoologist and marine science educator has dived throughout the Pacific Ocean in a bid to discover more about the creatures' unique reproductive processes. Mr Lipson, who has been described as "the father of marine studies education", was in Warrnambool on the weekend to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Coast Action/Coast Care. He gave the volunteers a presentation entitled Erotica and Exotica of the Deep."I'm interested in the visual aspects of animals and particularly how they reproduce." he said as the group embarked on a cultural walk around Thunder Point yesterday. He said the common blue-throated wrasse, or parrot fish, was able to change its gender to reproduce. "They're all born as females but if the biggest female in the group is removed then the next biggest female changes to a male," Mr Lipson said."All females have the ability to change to males if they are required to be males."A similar "gender bender" in the human world was discovered in 1992 in a Caribbean community, where some young girls changed to males during puberty, he said.When the deep sea angler fish chooses its mate, the male bites the female and grows into her and becomes permanently attached to her body."You do see a lot of behaviour in human beings that you see also in primitive animals," he said. He said continuing education of the underwater world was crucial to protecting our coast.