Coral reef ecosystems are for most people, faraway isolated environments, it is therefore important that we bring these environments closer to people and immerse them in these underwater worlds.
The Florida Reef Discovery Centre has a mission to astonish visitors through immersive educational experiences that inspire them to take action and make small lifestyle changes that will help Florida’s coral reef.
Their vision depicts visitors walking into the Reef Discovery Centre, and being immediately struck by the beauty of the colours and vibrancy of ocean life that is concentrated around the reef. Exhibits will consist of innovative tech displays that allow visitors to interact with various elements and simulations that help them better understand these ecosystems.
Let us take you on a visualisation journey.
Visitors will start their tour with a virtual diving experience, placing on VR ‘diving goggles’ to go on an ‘underwater’ virtual tour of the reef. During your virtual dive, numerous prompts and interactive features enable an immersive and memorable learning experience that is adapted to accommodate all ages. The second part of the experience is a multi-user interactive table. This interactive exhibit is focused on ocean and reef threats and their impacts over time.
Visitors will be able to select different threats, at different levels, to see how the combinations of these threats impact coral reef health and the Florida coastline. Visitors can also explore preventative measures to see what positive gains can be made over time.
The tour ends off with a large interactive living reef wall, bringing Florida’s reef into the building. Walking through the exhibit, visitor’s movements are live-tracked, and have an influence on a range of colour and reef life.
This carefully designed and curated experience will not only educate the visitor, but it will also leave them with a sense of responsibility to protect these ecosystems by supporting preventative and regenerative measures.
The future of the world’s coral reefs depends on our commitment to preventative management approaches. The regenerative management approaches are fronted by scientists. Often these regenerative programmes look at collected live coral fragments that are grown to maturity in controlled nurseries, and later planted at reef sites.
While the ocean ecologists and scientists take care of this job, the public’s job is to better understand their individual impact through seafood choices, carbon footprint, and land-based activities.
