Some of the newest technology related to diving has come in a form strictly for surface use, as Google Maps has recently expanded their Google Street View to the ocean and gone underwater to capture panoramas and videos of reefs around the world! Google Street View is an interactive program that allows users to virtually navigate streets, museums, and famous sites world-wide but has previously stayed on land. Google has teamed up with the Caitlin Seaview Survey to create images of 360o views of reefs, which will make phenomenal images of reefs and virtual tours of popular dive sites available to billions of people who have never experienced the underwater world.
Google hopes to make these dive sites accessible to users to promote interest and conservation of the ocean and the images will be added to an archive for marine scientists to use for studies of these marine environments. From September to December the project will travel down the coast of Australia taking thousands of images that will be continually uploaded new sites to Google Maps. Currently there are six sites available to view on Google Maps, including three sites at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, two sites in Hawaii, and one of Apo Island in the Philippines.
This is especially exciting for me because I have been lucky enough to dive Apo Island on an Oceanic Ventures trip and it is so cool navigate those sites via the internet! Although these images are amazing, they pale in comparison to the true underwater world of Apo Island. So, although Google cannot quite compare to really experiencing Apo Island, they’re making great strides forward and making dive sites more accessible to non-divers and divers interested in previewing sites in a sustainable way!
You can see what I mean by going here.
This is pretty cool. You should try it!