ZhuHai, China – DIVEVOLK, a global leader in smartphone underwater housings and underwater imaging equipment, today announced that on April 22, 2026 — the 57th World Earth Day — the company served as a technical partner to Southern Media Group, supplying its DIVEVOLK SeaLink underwater livestreaming device for the Greater Bay Area coral expedition livestream “A Garden Beneath the Blue: Greater Bay Area Coral Expedition Revealed”. The broadcast followed Professor Liu Lan and her team from the School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, during their first annual coral survey in the waters around Sanmen Island in Zhuhai’s Wanshan Archipelago, part of the Miaowan Coral Municipal Nature Reserve.
Click the image to watch the video of the event
https://youtu.be/De_bOGiXGL4?si=Cu0PYUjntUZo7b2H
Broadcast Highlight: Underwater Scientific Fieldwork Enters Public View in Real Time
Public-facing ocean science has often depended on footage retrieved after a dive, edited into a story, and explained later. The key breakthrough of this broadcast was that underwater fieldwork entered the public viewing experience almost as it happened: researchers laid a 50-meter survey transect on the seafloor near Sanmen Island, assessed coral cover, coral health, disease conditions, and surrounding biodiversity, while the host on deck and the underwater team provided live commentary around the real-time footage.
With DIVEVOLK SeaLink, the transect deployment, coral community close-ups, and field observations were transmitted into Southern Media Group’s livestream workflow. Viewers were not only shown the outcome of a scientific survey; they could watch how researchers entered the site, set up the transect, and interpreted the condition of the coral ecosystem.
That shift changes the way the public can “see” ocean science. Underwater fieldwork, normally a relatively closed professional setting, became a real-time science communication scene that students, divers, ocean conservation followers, and general audiences could join.
SeaLink and the Broadcast Site: A Distinctive Coral Garden Fed by the Turbid Pearl River
DIVEVOLK SeaLink is a self-developed device designed specifically for real-time underwater video transmission. Because water blocks conventional wireless signals, a smartphone normally loses stable connectivity once it is submerged.SeaLink uses a WiFi-based contact-type underwater wireless transmission design to connect the underwater smartphone to a surface receiver, enabling supported workflows such as real-time video, video calls, two-way audio, and underwater collaboration. Rated for recreational diving depths of 30 meters, SeaLink features a Smart-Lock Retractable Wheel, telescoping buoyancy system, and reflective water-surface safety cover for diving, scientific survey, education, livestreaming, and marine conservation use cases.
In the Southern Media Group coral expedition broadcast, SeaLink did not replace the professional production system; it filled the critical gap between the underwater smartphone camera and the surface broadcast workflow. The on-site workflow placed a smartphone inside a SeaTouch 4 Max underwater housing. SeaLink transmitted the phone’s underwater video feed to the surface, where it was routed into Southern Media Group’s professional broadcast production equipment, enabling synchronized switching between underwater footage, the deck host, expert commentary, and audience interaction.
The value of that link was amplified by the broadcast location itself. The expedition took place near Sanmen Island in Zhuhai’s Wanshan Archipelago. The most compelling science story in the livestream concerned the water: the Pearl River Estuary gives Zhuhai’s coastal waters a yellow-green, high-turbidity, nutrient-rich character. Counter-intuitively, those conditions help sustain one of Zhuhai’s distinctive coral ecosystems.
Professor Liu Lan explained during the broadcast:
“Pearl River water brings abundant nutrients and organic matter… The environment is unsuitable for most photosynthetic corals that depend on strong light, but it is a natural paradise for heterotrophic corals. Within just ten-odd meters of depth, divers can see coral species that, in tropical seas, only appear below 30 meters.”
The result is an underwater landscape with abundant soft corals and gorgonians in vivid forms and colors. Unlike photosynthetic corals that rely heavily on symbiotic zooxanthellae, these heterotrophic corals actively feed on plankton and suspended organic particles in the water column. The “turbidity” that makes the Pearl River Estuary look unremarkable at the surface is, in fact, the food source that sustains these coral communities. SeaLink helped bring that hard-to-see ecological scene into the livestream in real time.
Zhang Mengxi, Section Chief of Forestry and Wetlands at the Zhuhai Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources, stated during the livestream that the newly launched Miaowan Coral Reserve monitoring program aims to build “a long-term, standardized, traceable monitoring system” to address the chronic problem of an “unmapped and undocumented marine baseline.” The Miaowan Coral Reserve is expected to be folded into the provincial-level Zhuhai Qi’ao-Dangan Island Nature Reserve, and A Field Guide to Coral Communities of Zhuhai is currently being compiled for public release.
SeaLink: Moving Underwater Livestreaming Beyond Specialist Production Teams
Real-time underwater video has historically belonged to high-budget documentaries, television productions, or major research projects. It often required complex underwater camera systems, dedicated transmission links, professional broadcast crews, and significant deployment costs. SeaLink’s product value is that underwater real-time footage can begin with a smartphone and move through a lighter equipment chain into broadcast, education, field research, and public communication systems.
In the Greater Bay Area coral expedition broadcast, SeaLink helped enable:
- Real-time underwater footage entering the production workflow: SeaLink transmitted the video feed from the smartphone inside the SeaTouch 4 Max housing to the surface and into Southern Media Group’s professional broadcast production equipment
- Live field interpretation: Underwater transect deployment, coral observation, and host commentary took place on the same timeline
- Real-time public participation: Viewers could ask questions, interact, and discuss the science while watching the underwater scene unfold
The applications extend well beyond television. Marine research teams can use SeaLink for coral monitoring, species identification collaboration, transect documentation, and remote expert consultation. Marine protected areas and conservation organizations can use it for coral spawning, artificial reef restoration, seagrass monitoring, and public open-day broadcasts. Dive centers, schools, and science education institutions can apply it to underwater course demonstrations, safety training, youth ocean education, and immersive online classrooms. Content creators and event organizers can also use it for underwater sports, freediving, pool performances, and large-scale event coverage.
Marine conservation is moving toward a more real-time, transparent, and participatory technology model. Audiences no longer need to wait for a polished video after the fact; they can watch fieldwork as it happens, understand scientific judgment in context, ask questions, and build sustained attention. DIVEVOLK believes lightweight real-time underwater transmission technologies such as SeaLink will become an important connecting layer among marine science, citizen science, and public education.
Quote from DIVEVOLK
“We are grateful to Southern Media Group for turning the camera, on World Earth Day, toward the coral ecology in our own backyard — the Wanshan Archipelago of Zhuhai. It was an honor for DIVEVOLK to support this scientific expedition livestream with SeaLink.”
“SeaLink was designed so underwater imagery would no longer remain only on a diver’s memory card, but could connect more people to the scene in real time. This broadcast showed a clear direction: once underwater smartphone video can reliably enter a professional production workflow, new forms of collaboration become possible among marine science, protected-area monitoring, public education, and media storytelling.”
“The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area holds severely underappreciated coral biodiversity. The heterotrophic soft-coral communities in the turbid Pearl River Estuary are a treasure that belongs to South China’s local divers, citizen scientists, and ocean communicators. DIVEVOLK will continue to support marine expeditions, science communication, and citizen-science projects through our smartphone underwater housings, underwater livestreaming devices, and dive lights.” — DIVEVOLK Marketing & Communications
About the Expedition Broadcast
A Garden Beneath the Blue: Greater Bay Area Coral Expedition Revealed was broadcast by Southern Media Group on April 22, 2026 — the 57th World Earth Day — focusing on the annual coral expedition around Sanmen Island in Zhuhai’s Wanshan Archipelago. The research team boarded the Wanshan-hao research command vessel operated by the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory and conducted transect-based fieldwork in waters associated with the Miaowan Coral Municipal Nature Reserve, observing coral cover, health status, disease conditions, and biodiversity.
On-camera speakers:
- Liu Lan— Professor, School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University
- Zhang Mengxi— Section Chief, Forestry and Wetlands, Zhuhai Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources
- Wu Siming— Deputy Director, Public Affairs Department, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory
- Liu Xiaoping— Science Communication Specialist, Public Affairs Department, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory
The coral recovery signs revealed by the expedition align with broader marine environmental improvements in Guangdong. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the average share of coastal waters meeting “good quality” criteria rose by 9 percentage points compared with the previous five-year period, reaching 91.2% in 2025 and exceeding the planning target by 5.2 percentage points. The Wanshan Archipelago waters have been recognized by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment as an outstanding “Beautiful Bay” case study, while Dong’ao, Wailingding, Guishan, and Sanjiao Islands have been named among China’s first batch of nationally designated “Harmonious and Beautiful Islands.”
About DIVEVOLK
DIVEVOLK, headquartered in Zhuhai, China, is a global technology company specializing in smartphone underwater housings, underwater livestreaming devices, and supporting accessories for diving, snorkeling, underwater photography, underwater video, and underwater livestreaming. The company’s flagship SeaTouch 4 Max product line delivers professional-grade underwater smartphone photography capability at a fraction of the cost and complexity of traditional camera systems; The Sea Light series of dive lights provides reliable illumination for macro photography and close-range reef imaging.
The revolutionary SeaLink UW Smartphone Dada Transmitter enables phones to receive signals at depths of up to 30 meters underwater, supporting features such as live streaming and video communication across multiple platforms. DIVEVOLK was honored as ScubaLab’s Best Buy in 2024 and twice won the Dive Award of Innovation in 2024 and 2026.
DIVEVOLK products are sold worldwide through divevolkdiving.com and authorized retailers. The company is committed to making underwater image creation affordable and accessible to every diver, marine researcher, and ocean communicator, and to advancing the technology that enables it.
Website: www.divevolkdiving.com
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