Reef-World is proud to partner with businesses across the dive industry who are leading the way in raising awareness of sustainability across the industry. One of those partners is Paralenz and we caught up with Jacob Dalhoff to find out all about how the company is working to protect the ocean and how underwater photographers can play their part in conservation efforts.
First of all, can you tell us a little about Paralenz?
Jacob clearly loves to dive!
Paralenz is an Ocean company. We exist to introduce more purpose to diving and inspire many more people to explore the underwater world. By manufacturing a dedicated underwater camera and incorporating sensor technology for marine data, we have not only designed the most innovative camera on the market but we enable divers to protect their playground, while making the experience of recording and sharing your memories much easier.
The company was founded in 2016 in Copenhagen, Denmark, by a group of passionate inventors and divers. Today, we are a dedicated team of 25 people on a shared mission. It’s amazing to be a part of!
Paralenz recently began a partnership with The Reef-World Foundation – what was it about Reef-World’s work on the Green Fins initiative that drew you to the charity?
We want to work with companies and organisations through which we can add combined value to our shared mission - a healthier ocean. So, this is the most important criteria for us: a shared goal towards a clean ocean and mutual benefits. The reason we chose to reach out to Reef-World and the Green Fins programme is both because of the professional and clean identity, and their credibility and trustworthiness gained through their partnership with Un Environment Programme. In addition to this, we view the approach of Green Fins as one that could be extremely efficient.
Why is marine conservation – and this partnership with Reef-World – so important for the Paralenz team?
It is no secret that our ocean is dying and without it we will all have a very hard time being here. But, there is a lot we can do about it and we see many successful attempts to reverse the decline in many local areas.
As a company dedicated to the ocean we feel a strong obligation to help protect it and to enable as many divers and snorkelers as possible to do the same, while doing everything we can to inspire even more people to venture underwater. The more ambassadors we have for the world underneath the surface, the better we are able to protect it. Paralenz has adopted this paradigm out of personal experience of how fast the ocean and our reefs are dying, and a heartfelt wish to save it.
The reason for us partnering with Reef-World is that we can benefit a lot from the guidance and network they are providing, and we feel that we can add a lot of value to the work of Reef-World as well. In the end, if we do not work with the right organisations, we would add very little value to ocean conservation.
How is Paralenz contributing to ocean conservation as a company - tell us a little about TheOceanBase and how it came about
Paralenz is contributing in two ways.
Firstly, we act as a voice for the ocean. We generate awareness of the issues and solutions at hand by communicating the work and findings of our partnering organisations. Meanwhile, we also enable divers to much easier share the beauty and importance of the underwater world to those who have not yet seen it.
The second way Paralenz contributes is by bridging the gap between the recreational dive community and the science community. We have created a platform in the Paralenz App called TheOceanBase. This is a world map where divers can share their dive footage with others and, while doing so, they also share the marine data with our partners – such as universities and NGOs etc. – that can utilise this data for ocean conservation and regeneration.
The idea for TheOceanBase came up as we were developing the camera. Along the way we realised that having divers contribute with the temperature, depth and location of their dives on a daily basis would create a massive potential to have a real positive impact on the way scientists monitor the ocean – and the way divers and snorkellers interact with it. TheOceanBase is that tool and will substantially increase the upload of valuable marine data with the help of underwater enthusiasts.
Paralenz’s Blue Friday campaign recently raised a staggering amount for Reef-World’s work to protect coral reefs around the world – how did you feel when you realised how much had been raised?
Haha, I can answer that very shortly. All of us were blown away! - and I had tears running down my cheeks. A great feeling of contribution!
Underwater photography is incredibly popular among divers – more and more divers bring underwater cameras with them when diving. Why do you think it’s become such a popular part of the sport?
I believe that telling your story is becoming more and more important to people and the best aid we have for telling stories are images and videos. But this has always been present in humans, so I would say that the reason for its growth is the availability and accessibility of cameras. More cameras out there will automatically inspire more people to get a camera of their own. Adding to that, there are many more opportunities to share your footage online nowadays.
What tips can you give photographers to make sure they don’t damage the reef while trying to take their photos?
Well, the first thing is really getting to know yourself underwater and be in good control of your equipment and buoyancy before adding a camera to the mix. This, I would say, goes with any piece of diving equipment additional to the standard setup. A few more tips:
Always be aware of where your fins are!
Practise backfinning: this is a great way of getting yourself away from the reef once you got your shot.
Don’t chase stuff. You can film a turtle at a distance for hours and get amazing pictures and video, or you can film its behind for a couple of seconds. You choose ;)
Other than that, don’t focus on your monitor before you have checked your surroundings and know what you will take a picture of or film. Basically, I think the biggest mistake that divers do is that they lose sense of reality once they see something they want to take a picture of. Everything like ascend rate, healthy profile, air monitoring and taking care of yourself and your buddy goes completely down the drain. To avoid that, don’t get yourself hypnotised by the camera.
At Paralenz we have done our best to encourage divers to pay attention to their surroundings by making the camera as autonomous as we possibly could. Features like haptic-feedback, auto record as well as the mounting options gives the user the opportunity to enjoy the dive while filming it.
Why do you think underwater photographers can play such a key part in ocean conservation?
It is the inspiration part for sure! As the saying goes, we can’t love what we can’t see and we won’t protect what we don’t love. The more images and video we have out there, the more people will be reached and inspired. In addition to that, I believe we will see substantial progress in image recognition with regards to fish species and coral recognition that will be able to give us unprecedented overview of global coral health and biodiversity. We are, of course, obligated to do our very best to increase this progress.
Tell us about the new Paralenz Vaquita – what makes this camera so special?
The Vaquita is a completely ramped up version of the Dive Camera+, it is not only the most innovative underwater camera on the market seen solely from a filming and photography perspective. It also adds an incredible amount of value to marine science as we have added a salinity sensor to increase the dataset and a GPS sensor to make the location of the data more accurate. This is of course not personalised in any way, in accordance with GDPR regulations, and we only share numbers with our partners for easing their conservation work. It is very important that people understand that they are not being monitored in any way. By diving with the Paralenz Vaquita, they are helping to protect the ocean.
Does Paralenz have any other exciting developments in the pipeline we can tell our followers about?
One thing is certain, we are developers and divers by heart and we will never stop looking at how we can improve and evolve. I cannot unveil a lot but we will keep pushing our efforts towards making the experience of collecting footage from a dive and sharing it as seamless as possible. We will, of course, also keep evolving our partnerships to make an even bigger difference in helping reverse the steep decline of life beneath the surface. One thing I also want to mention in this context, which has been and is extremely important, is the feedback and dedication we receive from the community. We are only able to develop as we do because we listen to the people we are developing for. We cannot thank the community enough!
If there was one thing you could ask underwater photographers to do to protect the ocean, what would it be?
Share your stories! Share the beauty of the ocean for people to be inspired! Get involved in local projects and help them by documenting and creating awareness for their work. In our opinion, we believe we need to tell more positive and solution focused stories. By doing this you are creating awareness of how a problem is solved which is much more motivating for most people.
Anything to add?
We believe we are moving towards a more blue and conscious society. Companies and governments are stepping up, populations speaking up and more and more initiatives are being put in place to reverse the decline of our ocean. Many stakeholders conducting projects see fast and exponential positive change very fast after implementation and this is proof that if we keep working and keep pushing, there is still hope. If everyone does a little, it suddenly becomes a lot!
Thank you Jacob - it was great to speak to you and hear more about Paralenz’s work to protect the ocean!