VR Tour with Finn!!

• Finn shows you around on land (lots and lots of ice)

• Summer -> winter time lapse (antarctic waters freezing over and land mass growing, algae trapped in ice feeds krill during the winter)

• Winter -> summer (ice melts, algae released into water, krill and other aquatic life are abundant w the new food source)

• Swimming w krill, orcas, penguins, and other animals to see how they move and where in the water they go when hunting, resting, etc

• wilson the humpback whale

  • “(whale song) whoops, sorry, I forgot you humans can’t understand whale songs. I’ll try that again: I’m wilson, nice to meet you! I might be big, but don’t worry, I only eat krill and some other small crustaceans. I’m a filter feeder, which means I take a big mouthful of sea water (take big mouthful of seawater, the next few words are muddled because his mouth is full) and then use my baleen to push out all the water so that I’m left with a yummy mouthful of krill! Unfortunately, though, I don’t get to eat as much as I used to. As climate change alters the antarctic coasts, my food becomes more scarce, and my family worries we won’t get enough to eat. As a whale, there’s not much I can do to stop climate change, but you can help by making sustainable choices and staying educated!”

• betty the sea butterfly 

  • “Hey there, I’m Betty the sea butterfly! I know I don’t quite look like your normal land butterfly, but that’s because I’m actually a sea snail! My name comes from my foot, which has evolved into a big wing that I use to move around. Here’s the thing though, as the sea becomes more acidic due to pollution, the rest of the sea butterflies and I are in danger. The acidic water breaks down our shells, which weakens us and makes it hard to survive. We may be small, but we matter a lot to the ecosystem. We are on the bottom of the food chain, which means if our numbers drop, other animals like whales, penguins, and fish will lose a big source of food, and they’ll go hungry. It is so important that we do as much as we can to stop the ocean from getting more acidic by lowering rates of pollution in the air and sea.”

• sydney the colossal squid

  • “Hi! I’m Sydney, a colossal squid. I’m just a kid, but when I’m all grown up, I can be up to 14 m long! For such big squids we sure are shy though. Colossal squids live deep down in the ocean, so you humans haven’t been able to study us much. Here’s a fun fact though, we’ve all got these cool hooks on our tentacles (show hooks) to help us catch our prey, which is mainly big fish, like the patagonian toothfish, and smaller species of squids. We also use our hooks to fight off sperm whales, which are our main predators. The sperm whales aren’t the only things we need to fight against. Pollution and climate change are threatening the antarctic ecosystem and causing crustaceans like krill and sea butterflies to die off. They might not be my food, but they’re the food of my food, so if they are in danger of dying off, me, and so many other animals that live here, are in danger of starving. It is so important that we do whatever we can to help crustaceans survive that way everyone in the Antarctic can survive too.”

• Interactive games where the player sorts food into the right animal’s area (ex: krill goes to the humpback whale, big fish go to the squid)

• Simulation of ocean acidity due to pollution 

  • Kids can control a big factory that pollutes the air and water, they see the populations of various animals change through years of pollution

  • Also have the chance to do good things for the environment to see the positive effects on the ecosystem (eg. reforestation, shutting down/rebuilding factories to be sustainable, introducing greener options like electric cars and public transport)