Tara Duggan
Sep. 20, 2023 Updated: Sep. 20, 2023 10:01 a.m. SF Chronicle
A new virtual reality video submerges viewers 250 feet deep to an underwater plateau off the California coast where dense schools of rockfish swim among golden coral, and strawberry anemones turn the reef velvety pink.
The video was taken at Cordell Bank by the Bay Area Underwater Explorers, a group that includes some of the few humans who have ever visited the plateau 22 miles west of Point Reyes National Seashore. Divers made the virtual reality video, which also can be viewed on a regular screen as a 360-degree interactive video, during their most recent trips to the area last October.
A nonprofit group made up mostly of Silicon Valley tech executives, Bay Area Underwater Explorers created the video working closely with the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, where filming took place. Diver Robert Lee said the goal was to broaden awareness about the sanctuary and its rich diversity of marine life.
Cordell Bank sits at the edge of the continental shelf where depths plunge almost 7,000 feet. With only an estimated 5% of the deep sea visited, the video provides a glimpse of what could be found with further exploration.
California’s ocean wonders on display in new video of rarely seen underwater plateau
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