The reason that our partner in Honduras, Antal Borcsok at Tela Marine, built the first free, public aquarium in Central America is so everyone can see the incredible animals that live on the reef just beyond the shore.
It’s amazing to watch visitors see the fish and corals in the exhibits and understand how important these animals are. You never forget seeing the smiles, not just of the kids, but the adults too.
The only way to do conservation, Antal has said many times, is through people’s hearts.
One limitation of aquariums, though, is that they aren’t immersive like diving in the ocean is. But going out on a boat, gearing up in scuba or snorkel equipment, and diving onto the reefs isn’t possible for a lot of people. And it’s almost unthinkable for a Sunday afternoon outing with family of all ages looking to share an experience together in Tela. Or it was unthinkable, until now.
Last year, we received an incredible grant from Stanley Creator’s Fund to build a virtual reality experience at Tela Marine. We hoped to create a way for people to dive beneath the waves of Tela Bay, without ever getting wet.
We are thrilled to announce that this VR experience is now open, and it’s a hit!
Visitors enter a “dive shop” complete with dive equipment like regulators, buoyancy compensators and a functioning air compressor for filling tanks. They sit on a bench and put on the “gear,” but instead of donning a scuba mask, it’s a virtual reality headset.
Antal and his team videoed iconic parts of Tela Bay using a 3D camera. These sites include the rare, resilient elkhorn gardens in Punta Sal, the off shore reefs full of brain and carpet corals, and even some underwater wrecks from the banana plantation era. To make the videos feel lifelike, they created “Melody” a VR-camera-headed mannequin to do the shooting.
Although the entrance fee to the aquarium remains free, there is a small admission fee (about $3.75) for the VR experience. These funds go a long way to help offset some of the aquarium’s operational costs.
The virtual reality experience is a fast-paced, fun highlight reel of Tela Bay that makes you feel like you can reach out and touch the fish that swim by. Since it’s opened, Antal tells us, there’s been constant stream of customers thrilling at the experience of diving into the amazing, immersive beauty of Tela’s extraordinary reefs.
