10 of the best virtual ocean adventures - MW

Coral wonders
Discover the world's most famous coral environment, on the east coast of Australia, David Attenborough, Great Barrier Reef is an interactive journey around this beautiful but threatened world. It digs deep into some of the 1,500 species of fish and 600 types of corals that live on a 133,000-square-mile reef, to tell the story of one of the Earth's most biodiversity ecosystems and damage. due to climate change - through interactive timelines, videos, weather maps and even a mantis shrimp vision tool. As part of the Netflix documentary Chasing Coral, which investigates coral bleaching around the world, Ocean Agency created a series of 360-degree images on Google Earth (click through the tabs on the bottom left to fly between them). Locations). Also try AirPano, which provides a glimpse of a multicolored coral reef near Komodo Island in Indonesia through an interactive photo.

Swimming with sharks




Duunun dun. Duunun dun. Dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun There's probably nothing beyond that movie when it comes to galeophobia addictive experiences, but there are also many virtual ways to get up close. Great white can be up to six meters long and reach speeds of 35 miles per hour. It becomes close to the spine in this 360-degree video on the island of Guadalupe off Mexico, Baja California, where viewers sit right outside the cage. Elsewhere, National Geographic created an immersive video of a direct confrontation with a hammerhead shark in the Bahamas. Discovery Channel has caught a whale shark - the largest fish on the planet - at 360 degrees. And the MythBuster team from the same channel also shot about 30 reef sharks together near Ray Ray's Bahamas wreck, as part of a wider shark fear research project. If you're lucky, you might even catch a glimpse of the Exploreorg webcam webcam on the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Fear, North Carolina.

Dolphin diving

Swim with wild dolphins in a dolphin Club 360-degree video, created as a cruel-free alternative to the so-called dolphin support therapy with the fish. Pigs are imprisoned. The research organization has also developed waterproof UnderwaterVR goggles, allowing swimmers to experience virtual wild dolphins and related therapeutic effects. In the Bahamas, the Dolphin Project calls on viewers to make commitments, in their 360-degree video, to not buy tickets to watch captive dolphin shows. And our Blue Planet VR series of videos includes immersive virtual reality experiences about bottlenose dolphins and ocean rays. A marine biologist recounts scenes off Mexico, near the island of San Benedicto and although it was shot in 3D, it is worth watching even without a VR headset.

Kelp coast

Underwater kelp forests cover about 25% of the world's coastline, and each ribbon-like wide seaweed can grow up to two feet in a day. Helping to combat climate change, kelp is highly effective in storing carbon from the atmosphere - an estimated 600 million tons per year, about twice as much as the UK emits. Ocean First Education, which offers online marine science courses, created an immersive video through the Anacapa kelp forest in the California Channel Islands National Park, which also has its own webcam stream. The nearby Channel Islands National Marine Reserve has a virtual recount of a playful sea lion. Elsewhere, BBC Earth's 360-degree footage of a dip in a Norwegian kelp forest and another scene in Monterey Bay, California.

Shipwreck expeditions




Discovering shipwrecks often requires a degree of diving, but these interactive virtual tours take viewers into underwater locations without any danger. There are several 360-degree videos of exploring around New Zealand, including HMNZS Canterbury, a destroyer warship, sunk to provide an artificial reef and a wreck in 2007; and MS Mikhail Lermontov, a ship. The central staircase and starboard entrance have collapsed after the 2016 earthquake, so this video is the only way to see these features. Another 360-degree video tour with voice-over narration exploring the wreck of SS Thistlegorm, a Merchant Navy ship that was bombed in October 1941 near Ras Muhammad in the Red Sea, and is now a diving site popular.

Turtle tour

There's a miracle about sea turtles - they can hold their breath underwater for up to seven hours, live to about 100 years old and their favorite meal is jellyfish with seagrass. National Geographic filmed this 360-degree video on Buck Island Reef in the U.S. Virgin Islands, one of the first protected marine monuments in the US, created in 1961. It included a rare look. Ask about the little fry as they go from the nest to the sea at night. An Airpano video captures a larger adult sea turtle off the coast of Cuba, largely uninhabited in the Caribbean Jardines de la Reina. Almost all turtles are currently in danger, facing an increasingly difficult battle against a range of threats - from mistaking plastic for food to poaching and light pollution on the beach. .


Roaming for rays





Rays has the largest brain size ratio of any fish. The largest is the ray, which can be up to seven meters long. One of the best places to see them is Indonesia, as seen in AirPano's 360 video, shot off the coast of Raja Ampat, West Papua, where one of the giant underwater gliders on a reef was caught. Discovery also filmed a close-up video of a mantis swimming with whale sharks and a biologist explaining why anchors like this are important for ocean survival. Often confused with manta rays, devil rays are their smaller cousins, with a mouth slightly below the face instead of the front, and sharp horns. This 360-degree video features a shot of a group of them off the coast of Santa Maria in the Azores.

Floating with jellyfish

They may not have a brain, heart, bones or eyes, but jellyfish can be deadly. Gelatin marine organisms have other neural networks, control feeding, swimming and protecting, and often a set of sharp-tailed tentacles - in the case of a nearly invisible sea bee, the most dangerous jellyfish on Earth, can kill humans a dose the size of a grain of salt. Catching the less intimidating, stingy medusa species, in a lagoon in Raja Ampat in Indonesia, AirPano's 360-degree video puts viewers in the middle of a large swarm - called a jellyfish. Another hypnotic role-playing video shows a blur around Cuba alone Cuba Jardines de la Reina.

Schooling and shoaling





The instinctive way of moving fish in unison is called schooling, which is different from hitting shoes, when the fish are stuck together for social reasons, such as defense, foraging or seeking mates. The shape of the school depends on the species - some rectangles or ovals with back and forth swimming; Others move in tornado chains. Displaying multiple images, this AirPano 360 degree shows thousands of Caranx and other reef fish near the island of Malpelo, 300 miles off the Colombian coast of Pacific. A set of still 360 degree images, shot at the New Caledonian Barrier Reef in the South Pacific - the longest continuous barrier barrier in the world at 930 miles - show hundreds of colorful reef varieties (click the white arrow to explore website).

Other monsters of the deep

With a brain in the middle of the body controlling the nervous system and a few million neurons in their eight tentacles (allowing them to touch, taste and move objects independently), octopuses, not are animals with high intelligence. They were able to see jars without caps, wearing coconut shells for armor and stacking stones. Try to find the octopus at the beginning of this 360-degree video of YouTuber Frédéric B - it is almost completely disguised and constantly changes its skin color as it flies around, disguised on the rocky seabed. A 360-degree diving video of BBC Earth (filmed for 3D headsets if possible), descending with a diving team at Browning Wall in British Columbia, Canada, overtaking a giant Pacific octopus, a giant eel wolf out hunting, sea lions and starfish.

MW