Fancy a swim? Take a virtual tour through these five marine sanctuaries
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently launched an online project that allows users to visit some of the most beautiful underwater habitats in the world by simply clicking their mouse.
The NOAA initiative, called Sanctuary Virtual Dive Gallery, offer 360-degree, VR images of five national marine sanctuaries: the ship graveyard of Thunder Bay in Lake Huron, the Florida Keys, Gray’s Reef off the coast of Georgia, Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico, and American Samoa, with the web-based images viewable on any computer or mobile device. A VR headset is not mandatory, yet a NOAA press release stated that “the virtual reality experience on your mobile device is certainly enhanced with the addition of a headset viewer.”
Divers from the administration had been working on the project since 2014, with the ultimate goal being to make the marine sanctuaries more accessible to the general public.
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“Because such a small percentage of people in the U.S. are able to scuba dive, we constantly face the challenge of showcasing the underwater beauty and wonders of national marine sanctuaries,” said Mitchell Tartt, chief of the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ Conservation Science Division.
“These virtual dives are incredibly engaging and truly provide unique experiences that anyone with internet access can enjoy,” he added. “They are game changers in helping the public and our partners better understand these places.”
The gallery also emphasised the threats posed to the health of marine habitats, such as the coral bleaching event of the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, for example.
In the future, the teams plan to add images for other dives to the current gallery, thus showing areas such as Monterey Bay in California, the Stellwagen Bank of Massachusetts Bay, and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Sanctuary.
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