Reef Defender vs Orca Chasers

The ancient Hawaiians knew that what happens on land affects the ocean, so they used a system of land and sea stewardship involving the entire ahupua’a (watershed) from land to sea. You can learn about the connection of land and sea by playing the game Reef Defender. The good guy in Reef Defender is the shark.

Sail from Denmark to the Caribbean with a pod of orcas in your wake. Orca Chasers is a lane-runner on water. Three shipping lanes run between the red and the green buoys. Swipe left and right to pick your lane, swipe up to jump a drifting anchor or a boom of chained logs, swipe down to dive under an orca or a row of tentacles, and hold to trim the sails for a burst of speed. Eight legs, 5,140 nautical miles, one small boat. THE JOURNEY Skagen, IJmuiden, Cherbourg, Brest, A Coruña, Baiona, Funchal, Las Palmas, Mindelo, Rodney Bay — eight legs down a real Mercator chart. Every leg has its own sea, sky and coastline: North Sea wind turbines, the white cliffs of the Channel, a stormy Bay of Biscay, the green cliffs of Madeira, the Teide, flying fish in the trade winds, and reefs and palms at the end. ORCAS THAT MEAN IT Some orcas hunt. They breach clear of the water and switch lanes to cut you off. Others charge head-on behind a white bow wave. And if one catches you, it takes the boat down with it. The first hit costs you the rudder instead of the run: you sail on, slower and clumsier, until it is repaired. The second hit ends the leg. SCORE, STARS AND STREAKS Coins build a streak multiplier, a hair-width miss pays a close-call bonus, and every leg has three stars: arrive, keep the rudder, take 60% of the coins. Missions, a daily gift and a New best! on every result sheet. FIVE BOATS Start on a striped beach catamaran, work up to the Lagoon 38 and the two Bavarias, and stare at the diamond-priced Dufour 48 you will almost certainly never own. Coins are earned by sailing. There is nothing to buy. ENDLESS CARIBBEAN Turquoise water, no finish line, difficulty that keeps climbing. Your best score is there to be beaten. ALSO ABOARD A mermaid on her rock, a Mahi Mahi with a grudge, whales that blow, a sea that really swells, and a calypso soundtrack. NO STRINGS Free. No advertising. No in-app purchases. No accounts. Nothing is collected and your progress never leaves your device. Game Center is optional, and only for friends leaderboards. Credits — 3D models: "Sailboat", "Killer Whale" and "Kingfish" by Poly by Google (CC BY 3.0); "Sail Ship", "Whale" and "Dolphin" by Quaternius (CC0).