An underwater variant of the Google Street View service will from today begin giving web users an unprecedented photographic tour of Australia's Great Barrier Reef – and another reef in Bermuda will soon be getting similar treatment.
Called the
Catlin Seaview Survey, the project is a joint venture between Google, the
University of Queensland and their sponsor, a multinational insurance firm called the Catlin Group. Part science project and part public outreach, the aim is to learn as much as possible about the reef's state of health from a panoramic underwater photographic and video survey – and let the rest of us enjoy the reef's untrammelled beauty online.
"For the first time in history, we have the technology available to broadcast the findings of an expedition through Google. Millions of people will be able to experience the life, the science and the magic that exists under the surface of our oceans," says the survey's chief scientist,
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the University of Queensland in Brisbane.
