Swimming with wild dolphins is something most can only dream of and jumping into pools with captive animals has become increasingly controversial with environmentalists condemning it as cruel.
However, a Dutch non-profit believes it has found a way to bring people, especially disabled people, closer to such a joyful experience through the technological, immersive advances offered by virtual reality (VR).
The Dolphin Swim Club is the realization of a more than two-decade journey by artist Marijke Sjollema, who had her first chance encounter with a dolphin in 1993 while snorkeling off the coast of Mexico.
Photo: AFP
“I saw this gray shadow under the water and my first thought was: ‘This is the end.’ I thought it was a shark,” she said.
She tried to stay calm, “but this shadow was following me and then there was this split second that I realized that it wasn’t a shark. It was a dolphin,” Sjollema said.
“I didn’t know anything about dolphins, but I instinctively knew: ‘Oh a dolphin, I’m fine. This is a good thing,’” she said.
From that moment on, Sjollema’s love of dolphins and all cetaceans was born.
“We know that there is something magical about dolphins. We think of joy, and playfulness and happiness and innocence when we meet dolphins. And this is even a healing quality,” she said.
She and her business consultant husband, Benno Brada, have devoted their spare time, energy and personal resources to their mission of enabling people to discover their own encounter with dolphins.
Their first project using normal VR headsets playing a film of the dolphins launched in late 2015.
However, last month, they went a step further, unveiling waterproof VR glasses, which allow people to drift around a pool watching bottlenose and spinner dolphins playing around them in virtual reality.
This VR dolphin therapy in a pool, still at the trial stage, is thought to be a world first.
“The dream was to find an alternative to dolphin-assisted therapies using dolphins in captivity,” Brada told therapists at a residential community for disabled people run by the ’S Heeren Loo organization who were testing out the waterproof goggles in the pool.
The center has been using the land version of the VR glasses since last year and has seen noticeable benefits.
“Some 82 percent of our clients feel actually relaxed by seeing the films,” the organization’s policy adviser Johan Elbers said. “It takes them away from the world they are in, they enter a new world in another mindset, think differently, feel differently, see differently and relax completely.”
He recalled how one young woman, who had long had trouble sleeping, now watches a VR film of the dolphins swimming at night and falls quietly asleep.
Another man is able to completely forget an agonizing pain in his arm, he said.
Dion, a 21-year-old resident of the community, said watching the film made him feel “peaceful.”
“The dolphin noises and the water calms me down, that calms me from all the noises that there are, then you’re zen,” he said.
The pool-safe VR goggles, developed thanks to a 50,000 euro (US$59,000) grant from the Dutch government, consist of a waterproof Samsung smartphone in a waterproof backing mounted on a special 3D-printed rig made of recycled plastics.
“Stress is very important as a driver of all kinds of psychiatric problems,” said psychiatrist Wim Veling, from the University of Groningen.
“So we are trying in therapy to make people more relaxed,” said Veling, who has been studying the use of VR to help people with mental health disorders.
“The power of virtual reality is in the immersion” into another world, he said on the Dolphin Swim Club site.
For Sjollema, the VR glasses offer huge advantages. Not only can they bring the dolphins to disabled people, who would not be able to travel to see them, but they also avoid the use of captive dolphins.
“Right from the beginning we wanted to make this an alternative for existing therapies with dolphins in captivity,” she said.
The films were made during a 10-day shoot in December 2015 at the Red Sea, by specialist VR team Viemr, using free divers capable of holding their breath for up to five minutes so as not to scare away the dolphins.
The dry version glasses are already being used in more than 150 universities, hospitals and community centers around the world. The hope is that the waterproof ones will prove equally beneficial.
Sjollema and Brada are looking for a partner to launch their commercial production.
However, Dion is ready for something a little more exhilarating.
He would like to watch “a film with sharks” or lions “where the animal is hunting a prey. It would be fun to see a little bit of action.”
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
Two people died and 19 others were injured after a Mexican Navy training ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said yesterday. The ship snapped all three of its masts as it collided with the New York City landmark late on Saturday, while onlookers enjoying the balmy spring evening watched in horror. “At this time, of the 277 on board, 19 sustained injuries, 2 of which remain in critical condition, and 2 more have sadly passed away from their injuries,” Adams posted on X. Footage shared online showed the Mexican Navy ship Cuauhtemoc, its sails furled
RSS