The Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF), a conservation research organisation founded in 2009, works closely with fishing communities and government stakeholders across Mozambique's Inhambane Province to develop sustainable marine protection strategies. In the Bazaruto Archipelago — a biodiversity hotspot supporting manta rays, whale sharks, dugongs, dolphins and humpback whales — most coastal residents depend on the ocean for survival yet have never seen the underwater ecosystems that sustain their livelihoods. MMF needed a way to make an invisible world visible, and to translate field science into emotional engagement that could shift both community attitudes and policy decisions.
Habitat XR, the South Africa-based immersive studio, produced a purpose-built cinematic VR film shot in stereoscopic 360° to combine full immersion with depth perception. The narrative follows a fisherman from the Bazaruto Archipelago whose life has been shaped by the sea — a man who lost his father to the ocean, once feared its depths, and came to understand it only after learning to swim. His personal journey provides the emotional arc, while the underwater footage brings viewers into close proximity with the region's iconic marine megafauna, including whale sharks, reef mantas, wedgefish, dolphins and humpback whales.
MMF invested in VR headsets and deployed dedicated teams along the entire Inhambane coastline — stretching along Mozambique's Indian Ocean margin — bringing the experience directly to coastal fishing communities and schools. More than 2,000 Mozambican children have now experienced the VR in rural Mozambique, many seeing beneath the ocean surface for the first time. The experience has been integrated into MMF's broader education programmes, including the UNESCO-recognised Ocean Guardians initiative that has reached over 3,800 young people across the province since 2012.
Beyond community outreach, the VR experience has been used as a policy advocacy tool. In August 2022, MMF co-founder Dr Andrea Marshall presented the experience to Prince Harry and a US congressional delegation during their visit to the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, using it to demonstrate the power of immersive technology for marine conservation engagement. MMF reports that the VR has been utilised to help expand Marine Protected Areas in Mozambique, placing decision-makers virtually inside the ocean environments they help govern.
