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The Hydrous Inspiring Ocean Empathy

www.thehydro.us The Hydrous is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization on a mission to inspire ocean empathy and marine stewardship.

Through science-based experiences, scalable solutions like virtual reality, and multi-disciplinary partnerships, we’re making the ocean accessible so that all people may explore, understand, and engage with it. We need the ocean and the ocean needs us.

Erika Woolsey Peterson has been named a 2026 TIME Trailblazer!The new TIME Trailblazers: Designing and Making the Future...
09/02/2026

Erika Woolsey Peterson has been named a 2026 TIME Trailblazer!

The new TIME Trailblazers: Designing and Making the Future list recognizes an exclusive group of architects, engineers, technologists, founders, researchers, and builders whose work is addressing major challenges and expanding what’s possible. Selected by TIME’s editors and presented by Autodesk the list spotlights people whose ideas are actively shaping the future.

For Erika and The Hydrous, that future is immersive ocean education.

For more than a decade, she has been exploring what happens when marine science meets emerging technology and how we can use immersive experiences to make the ocean accessible to people who may never have the chance to dive themselves.

As The Hydrous enters its next chapter, that work is expanding beyond the headset. We’re building immersive ocean experiences across extended reality (XR) — which includes augmented reality (AR) — and VR, LED domes, interactive projections, cinematic storytelling, and digital learning.

We’re bringing people together to explore the ocean and discover their connection to it. And we’re just getting started 🤿

Congratulations to Erika and other trailblazers on the list!

Read her full feature on TIME in our link in bio.

We’re partnering with Silverback Films and Submersa Studios to bring audiences inside the ocean.What if ocean stories be...
08/26/2026

We’re partnering with Silverback Films and Submersa Studios to bring audiences inside the ocean.

What if ocean stories became more than documentaries you watch, but immersive experiences you could feel?

Together, we’re combining world-class natural history filmmaking, marine science, immersive technology, and underwater cinematography to create a new generation of ocean experiences for VR, XR, LED domes, interactive installations, and more.

For The Hydrous, this partnership builds on more than a decade of research and experimentation exploring how immersive experiences can make ocean science more accessible and help people develop a deeper connection with the ocean.

And now, we’re taking that work into its next chapter.
Working with Jeffrey Hester and Submersa Studios, we’re capturing new underwater footage in stereoscopic 8K, while Silverback, the production company that gave us Ocean with David Attenborough, brings its extraordinary cinematic storytelling and underwater filmmaking expertise to the collaboration.

Some of the first experiences will be shared this year! Follow The Hydrous, Silverback Films, and Submersa Studios to stay updated as we roll out new immersive experiences and opportunities to collaborate.

The best experts are those who not only educate, but also listen.Dr. Erika Woolsey brought stories of the Great Barrier ...
06/16/2026

The best experts are those who not only educate, but also listen.

Dr. Erika Woolsey brought stories of the Great Barrier Reef corals and other marine ecosystems to Des Moines, Iowa and was met with hundreds of landlocked ocean advocates. And some of the most insightful ocean stories were those shared from the community members themselves.

Dr. Woolsey opens ocean portals through her National Geographic Live talk, which she performs all over the country, while also listening deeply to the interests, needs, and challenges of the students, teachers, and families in the audience.

These conversations, made possible by DMPA - Des Moines Performing Arts , built bridges between people of all walks of life and their shared goal of inspiring ocean empathy.

The goal was not to deliver a linear message only from expert to audience, but rather to build a relationship through curiosity, trust, and shared wonder, values that Dr. Woolsey and The Hydrous uphold in all aspects of their work.

Learn more at thehydrous.com

Who says ocean advocates have to live by the ocean? In Des Moines — nearly 1,000 miles from the nearest coast — more tha...
06/09/2026

Who says ocean advocates have to live by the ocean?

In Des Moines — nearly 1,000 miles from the nearest coast — more than 3,500 students and community members showed up to listen to Dr. Erika Woolsey, Explorer and Founder and Chief Scientist of The Hydrous, talk about coral reefs, climate, exploration, and the future of our blue planet.

She asked who had visited the Great Barrier Reef, a surprising number of hands went up.

The passion is here. The curiosity if here. The ocean champions are already here.

The question isn’t whether landlocked communities care about the ocean. It’s how we create more portals to the ocean through education, storytelling, immersive experiences, and opportunities to connect.

Because protecting the ocean starts everywhere.

Photos by Melissa Pappas and Jones Pfeifer at Des Moines Performing Art

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Des Moines, IA
50301-50340-50310

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