Donovan Lewis spent two weeks in the Maldives this summer, diving with tiger sharks around the island of Fuvahmulah and collecting 360-degree footage for a conservation project with The Shark Trust, a Plymouth-based charity working to ensure shark conservation worldwide.

The footage will form part of the Trust’s One Ocean 360 project, which uses immersive technology and virtual reality to give people an underwater perspective on sharks and help challenge perceptions of the animals.

Donovan, who has worked in aquariums such as Blue Planet Aquarium and the diving industry for almost two decades, deliberately combined his photography trip with the conservation project.

He said: “I was already planning to dive with tiger sharks in the Maldives, so when I heard about the One Ocean 360 project, I knew I wanted to get involved.

“It was a brilliant opportunity to combine my photography with something that could have a real conservation and educational impact. Being able to contribute footage that could ultimately help people experience sharks in a completely different way was incredibly exciting.”

During the trip, Donovan and his dive team deployed a 360-degree camera close to the tiger sharks, capturing immersive footage that will be used by the Shark Trust alongside footage collected from other locations around the world.

The camera was weighted down and placed on the seabed while the divers watched the sharks from nearby. But the equipment attracted some attention of its own. One tiger shark came close enough to investigate the camera, creating footage that Donovan describes as one of the more memorable moments of the trip.

The Fuvahmulah dives also gave Donovan the chance to observe a remarkable concentration of tiger sharks. The island is known for its large population of the species, with individual sharks returning to the area year after year.

“It is an incredibly wild place,” said Donovan. “The tiger sharks come all the way into the harbour, so you can be surrounded by these huge animals just metres from the shore.

“There is a real sense of being in their world, rather than simply observing them from a distance.”

For Donovan, however, the trip was about more than getting close to spectacular animals. He believes immersive technology could play an important role in changing the way people understand sharks.

“Sharks are simply wild animals behaving naturally in their own environment. We just happen to be in their habitat.

“Unfortunately, sharks are often portrayed through a lens of fear, but immersive experiences like this give people the opportunity to see them differently.

“You can replace fear with curiosity, and curiosity is often the first step towards wanting to protect something.”

Virtual reality also provides a way for people to experience sharks who may never have the opportunity to travel to the Maldives or dive with them themselves.