Virtual Reality puts the reef around you – and within you.

“Scientists are told not to get too emotional, because our work is about numbers. But as a coral reef scientist, that's almost impossible.” And sometimes, just sometimes, emotion is exactly what’s required to move the needle. For Madeline St Clair, who is also a cinematographer, channelling these feelings into her work is necessary. Because her aim is to capture the hearts and minds of people who view the loss of coral reefs as something that simply happens elsewhere.

But even so, she knows that it’s one thing to see their vast beautiful expanses on screen and quite another to experience their colour, movement and life with your own eyes. So, it is equally, if not more, challenging to share the visceral sense of shock and loss when you first encounter a devastated, degraded reef. “It is incredibly hard to transport people from their homes to this underwater world, and to have them feel both the beauty of this ecosystem and the urgency of losing it,” she says. “Which is why I jumped at the opportunity to film the coral reefs of Seychelles in Virtual Reality.”

But a lot had to happen well before the first shot was taken. “We had to find a degraded reef and a healthy one, so we could show the difference,” Madeline explains. “We worked with Nature Seychelles to do this and found a small but incredibly beautiful area of coral – lots of different species, unbroken.” But this perfection came with a price. “There was a huge amount of what we call surge – where water moves from side to side,” she explains. “It’s often where the waves push-pull against the shore and it’s great for coral – which was why it was so healthy – but not for filming, especially in Virtual Reality, which requires stability.” So, the hunt was on for another spot with pristine coral, but less water movement.

They could not find one.

“Finding degraded sites was easy, they were everywhere. Some overtaken by algae – the next stage of death of a coral reef ecosystem – others reduced to rubble. It was very difficult, very emotional.” So, they returned to the initial spot. It was their only chance. 

As Kate Craggs of Coral Spawning International discovered, when she began photogrammetry of Seychelles’ reefs, working underwater with your camera is quite a ride. Firstly, it takes a great deal of preparation. Constant kit checks ensure the camera is 100% watertight (even a tiny leak in the underwater housing can spell disaster). Secondly, the camera must sit well in the water. “The last thing you want is for it to be sinking slightly or too buoyant, you want it sitting nice and neutrally in the water so that it's not dragging you up or down,” Madeline explains. This all happens in a pool, well in advance of hitting the sea.

Then it’s all about positioning. “The common principle with Virtual Reality is that you film at head height. But we scuba dive in a horizontal position, so that’s not going to work,” she says. A few days was spent painstakingly testing every possible position underwater – the waterproof housing on the camera repeatedly taken off, put back on and pressurised with a pump so the footage could be checked each time. Add in the repeated gearing up/de-kitting for Madeline and her safety diver, Sophie and every test took hours. “We had to work out the perfect place for the immersive experience of the coral, while still being far enough away that the focus and depth of field were correct.”

And because there were no other unspoiled sites, the pressure was on. A huge amount of surge dragged them from side to side, forwards and backwards as they tried to film. It took all their strength to keep the footage as stable as possible, so viewers would not feel any motion sickness, but there came a point where the surge was so strong that “a little bit of crafty engineering” was needed. “We tied weights to a tripod with dive belts and attached a flotation device to help navigate the heavy set-up to the seabed. Then we added on the camera and VR lens to be able to catch some shots without the surge”.

The incredible power of the water meant that this seemingly simple task was an enormous group effort – Madeline, Sophie and a team from Nature Seychelles all came together, fifteen metres under the sea, to fight the surge and attach the tripod to the ocean floor. “The bottom was sandy and unstable, everything was swaying and we were all pulled from side to side. But the results were worth it.” 

It was a shoot that pushed everyone to their limits. “We were pumped on adrenaline, knowing that it was going well, but everyone was emotionally and physically exhausted at the end of every day. We were in and out of the water multiple times, with all that involves. After diving, we prepped all our equipment and offloaded our footage so we could go through it and learn from it for the next day’s filming.” So, each day began at 5am, to try and beat the surges, and ended late into the night.

“But this is the dream, being able to bring coral reefs to people,” says Madeline. “There's a saying that ‘you protect what you love, but I believe you can't love what you don't know’. So, I hope that people who watch this VR documentary learn something, but I also hope they can take some of my emotion, my love and awe for coral reefs and feel something too. Urgency, definitely, but also hope.”

Follow the progress of our work with Coral Spawning International and Nature Seychelles here on VIEW.