Bycatch. It's a term coined by the fishing industry that means anything caught by fishing boats that are not the target species. That innocent-sounding word hides a brutal reality: billions of unwanted animals are slaughtered every year to put fish on your plate. Around 40% of worldwide fish catch is bycatch. Birds, turtles, dolphins, whales and countless other species are caught by fishing vessels and then dumped back into the ocean, dead or dying.

Resn had the opportunity to work with Sea Shepherd to highlight the global problem of bycatch through a local lens with their anti-bycatch campaign: Operation Dolphin Bycatch. The campaign focuses on one species in one region: the plight of dolphins on the west coast of France. In 2019 alone, over 11,000 dolphins were killed as bycatch in that one region. At this rate, dolphins will have disappeared from the French coastline in less than two decades. We wanted to shine a spotlight on the problem by showing people what bycatch really is: the brutal extermination of sea life.

Dolphins are charismatic animals that people often feel emotionally connected to and compassionate towards. Unfortunately, most people will never get to see dolphins in the wild and the problem of dolphin bycatch is abstract and disconnected to their lives. Marketing research has shown that AR is able to change users' perception by using additional layers of information to enrich their experiences about aspects of reality that cannot be directly touched. We wanted to use AR to put people right up close to dolphins and create a moving, emotional experience, in order to change people’s perception and influence them to take action. 

To tie in with Sea Shepherd’s Operation Dolphin Bycatch campaign, we created "Below the Surface AR"—a shocking mobile-exclusive augmented reality experience. We aimed to raise awareness of dolphin bycatch deaths by using the immersive power of AR to transpose the ocean’s reality to users’ mobile phones and allow them to experience bycatch for themselves. 

The user journey takes you from the tranquillity of the open ocean to witnessing a fishing boat thoughtlessly discarding dead dolphins overboard.

To realistically render an underwater environment in real-time 3D, we used a combination of VFX techniques, such as volumetric lights, distance fog, caustics and micro-particles, to simulate real physical behaviours. We applied a similar approach to the sphere of water to create its ocean surface and water disturbance effects.

As mobile devices do not currently support true browser-based AR, we took a simulated AR approach that used the gyroscope to synchronise the position of the sphere of water with the user’s phone movements. To convincingly blend our 3D render with the user’s environment, we simulated light reflections on the water’s surface by extracting colours from the user’s camera feed. These techniques allowed us to approximate an AR experience inside a mobile browser. 

We launched the project on February 14th, designated as World Love for Dolphins Day. We coordinated a worldwide rollout of Below the Surface AR to tie in with Sea Shepherd’s anti-bycatch campaign: Operation Dolphin Bycatch. On launch, we reached thousands of users throughout France and all over the world, increasing awareness and helping to raise money for Sea Shepherd to continue their fight for ocean conservation.