Ghost nets (discarded fishing nets floating around in the ocean) and other plastic pollution are a huge problem for all life in the sea. An unimaginable amount of 136.000 cetaceans and seals are trapped every year. So let’s recycle ghost nets into Virtual Reality goggles! Our UnderwaterVR goggles allow users to swim in (real) water with (virtual) dolphins, whilst supporting clean seas. We work together with partners (World Animal Protection, Global Ghost Gear Initiative) to understand more about ghost nets and how we can use them in the design of our UnderwaterVR goggles. Next a film the Dolphin Swim Club produced commissioned by the World Animal Protection about Dutch initiatives to work towards solutions. 

During the VR Days Europe in 2017, we launched the prototype of our newly developed UnderwaterVR goggles. By adding the dolphins’ own element, water, to the Virtual Reality experience, we are able to incorporate the ease of movement and the sense of skin. Furthermore, this magical nature experience has the added advantage of not requiring the use of captive animals.

For the sake of the dolphins, and all life in the sea, our desired next step is to produce the final version out of recycled ghost nets. The current prototype is mainly 3D printed from recycled material. For the development so far we received a grant from the Dutch government (SNN) and the generous aid in time and expertise of Ype Brada (Senior Developer at Philips).