Snapchat Lenses bring coral reefs to your neighborhood

How do you make nature exciting to a generation growing up with Snapchat and Instagram? The California Academy of Sciences has an idea: bring the nature to the apps that generation is using. It just trotted out a series of augmented reality Snapchat Lenses (the first of their kind, CAS said) that show reef life in your own corner of the world. You can get up close to creatures like sea turtles, nudibranches and moray eels without having to put on some diving gear or incurring the wrath of conservationists.

These are Lens Studio creations, so you only need to grab the relevant Snapcodes (at the source link) to get started. No, this won't stand in for a documentary or classroom lecture. However, that's not really the point -- this is more about fostering interest in the reefs, whether you're interested in preserving them or are just curious about what happens under the waves.