Diver Leaves GoPro Underwater to Capture Sunrise, the Result Is ‘Magical’

A scuba diver from Hawaii left her GoPro underwater to record the sunrise, but she filmed much more than that. The incredible footage she managed to capture is now amazing users on the internet.
Shared on TikTok in June by 34-year-old Brittany Ziegler from Maui, under the username @divedivelive, the video features not only the beauty of the sunrise as seen from underwater, but also lots of sea-life swimming by unbothered. Initially, only a couple of curious visitors made it close to the camera, but as the sun began rising all sorts of creatures started showing up, including sharks, turtles and fish of all sizes and colors.
“This is the side of the reef we don’t get to see on our underwater live-streams. The peace of dozens of species coexisting beautifully. The true magic of the underwater world,” reads layover text in the clip.
Ziegler, who along with her team is known for being among the few live-streaming scuba divers in the world, told Newsweek that this clip in particular is part of a “behind the scenes” series they are currently running.
“We live-stream the underwater world to share its beauty and foster a love and passion of the ocean. Most of our following stems from an audience that dives with us in real time. The Unattended GoPro series is a new thing we’ve started to capture all those moments we don’t see on the live-stream with human interaction.
“We place a GoPro on the ocean floor and leave it recording, by itself. The camera records for the entire dive while we are off on another location at the site. Each video is 30-70 minutes long,” she said.
In this specific clip, the camera was placed right by an artificial reef, 26 feet underwater. Man-made reefs are becoming increasingly common as scientists try to address the disappearance of coral around the world, which is largely due to climate change.
National Geographic says that the oceans take in over 90 percent of the planet’s heat, which in recent years has caused the waters to become warmer, endangering reefs and marine life all over the world, especially in equatorial areas.
When El Niño developed in 2016, warming up the Pacific Ocean, it killed off a third of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef. It is estimated that over half of the corals in the Australian coast bleached and then died.
In the Hawaiian islands, the degradation of the coral reefs increases the exposure of coastal communities to storms, raising the risk of floods.
Artificial reefs, which are used to mitigate environmental damage and habitat loss, are usually constructed on submerged shipwrecks, oil and gas platforms, bridges, and lighthouses, according to the National Ocean Service website.
The video quickly went viral on social media and it has so far received over 475,000 views and 68,000 likes on the platform.
One user, Lucy, commented: “The turtle silhouettes are simply magical.”
Sleepy_Niffler said: “I wish this was a 24hr live stream i could watch for hours.”
Love_cats added: “I counted 3 sharks, 5 turtles and what is that long fish near the end of the video.”
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