Mountain View, California — Amongst one of the seven natural wonders of the world is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is. With a new scientific survey underway, people will soon be able to explore the beauty and depths of the ocean seeking out tiger sharks, green turtles, and manta rays with a new program called the Catlin Seaview Survey.
Surprisingly, a new collaboration between Google, nonprofit Underwater Earth and Catlin Group Limited, an international insurance company launched the Catlin Seaview Survey. The of the project is to let people explore the ocean from the depths and also carry out the first detailed study about the composition and health of coral reefs.
It is a complex and vast eco-system that is the subject of an ambitious new project taking Google Street View underwater to photograph and the mapping expedition is expected to set sail in September 2012, which intends to present clown fish, coral reefs and other delights of the Great Barrier Reef to living rooms across the world through the Internet, using technologies that capture images of the ocean depths.
“For the first time people will be able to explore thousands of environments along the length of the Great Barrier Reef from the comfort of their own home,” cinematographer Richard Fitzpatrick told the conference. (Reuters / Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority / Handout)
The project is pretty much identical to Google Street View, which already presents everything from Times Square in New York to Brazil’s Carnaval to anyone having an Internet connection. But the underwater effort has an important environmental objective, which intends to study the composition and health of the famous reef in unprecedented detail, allowing scientists to document coral reefs and underwater grassland, as well as track the migration patterns of tiger sharks, sea turtles and manta rays.
“The Catlin Seaview Survey comprises a series of studies, which will present to the public one of the last frontiers on Earth: the oceans,” chief scientist for the project Ove Hoegh-Guldberg said in a statement. “For the first time in history, we have the technology available to broadcast the findings and expedition through Google.”
The project which employs a variety of high-tech underwater cameras, will carry out one of the most intensive studies of the reef up to a depth of 100 metres, with the public watching via Youtube and other Google sites. It will take over 50,000 360-degree panorama shots of the reef and its inhabitants that will then be made available through Google Earth and Google Maps.
A diver uses a custom-designed underwater vehicle with a 360-degree camera to generate panoramas of the Great Barrier Reef. Source: (Catlin Seaview Survey)
Clearly the in-depth visual view of the reef is a hugely valuable educational and practical tool. The images will help scientists carry out more regular surveys of fish, turtles and other animals. Mapping the reef with such great meticulousness has huge implications. The primary goal is to set benchmarks that will help study the effect of climate and environmental changes on this massive eco-system.
“There are a whole series of ways of using the imagery and ultimately this is bridging a gap between science and public awareness,” said Hoegh-Guldberg, chief scientist of the Catlin Seaview Survey.
The project will also have a dedicated Youtube channel.
“For the first time people will be able to explore thousands of environments along the length of the Great Barrier Reef from the comfort of their own home,” cinematographer Richard Fitzpatrick told the conference during a live underwater interview from Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef.
Interestingly, the project also boasts a dedicated YouTube channel, and will broadcast Google + Hangouts, which involve group video chats, on-air — allowing viewers to watch livestreams of the exploration from the ocean floor.
Professor Hoegh-Guldberg, who commented on the projects potential said: “Millions of people will be able to experience the life, the science and the magic that exists under the surface of our oceans. This project is very breathtaking.”
On the other hand, the project’s cutting-edge technologies include two robots that are able to explore unprecedented depths, beyond the range of scuba divers. Each of the robots is able to help the other one if one gets stuck between the reefs.
“So this becomes important in climate change because people have been suggesting those deeper areas may be protected from climate change and assist in the recovery of reef systems. But at the moment we do not know.”
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