Live Underwater Webcams

Underwater webcams are installed below the surface: on coral reefs, piers, dive sites, kelp forests and artificial reefs. They show the sea the way divers see it — fish, rays, turtles, octopuses and the occasional shark passing the lens.

Visibility is everything under water. On a calm, sunny day the water can be crystal clear; after a storm, a plankton bloom or heavy rain it turns cloudy and the view shrinks to a few metres. Schools of fish come and go with the tide and the currents, and many species keep their own daily routine on the reef, from cleaning stations to night-time hunters.

Underwater cameras need daylight. Most are clearest around midday, when the sun is high and light reaches deepest, and they go dark at night unless they have lights of their own. Algae and barnacles grow on the housing and gradually blur the picture until divers clean it, so the quality of a stream can change from week to week.