You don't have to leave your desk to watch the whales and dolphins play in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California.
David Anderson has mounted seven cameras and built an underwater viewing pod on his 50-foot high-tech, high-speed catamaran and will take anyone along for a virtual ride.
Anderson, a documentary filmmaker whose "Wild Dolphins and Whales of Southern California" was a winner at the Wildscreen Film Festival, wanted his latest venture to be more than a webcam.
"It's like a reality show. We have mikes on the captain and crew. You will hear things even the passengers don't hear. My crew was not real keen on this and there is a little friction but they understand why we are doing it," he said.
When the boat is out, the cameras are on, the mikes are connected and the action is live.
If you sign up on his Web site in the morning, he will Tweet you when the boat is approaching a group of whales or a pod of dolphins. That lets you log on for the best of each trip. Recaps will also be available on the Web site each night, he said.
It took more than a year to get Coast Guard approval for the viewing pod on Anderson's boat, the Manute'a. The viewing pod, made of 36 square feet of bulletproof glass, holds just a couple of people at a time and they can find themselves very intimate with the dolphins.
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