Mapping the ocean

"Looking up"
by Derek Keats via Wikimedia Commons

IT'S easy to go online and get a 360-degree, ground-level view of almost any street throughout the world. 

Now, scientists hope people will be able to do the same with coral reefs and other underwater wonders.

United States government scientists are learning to use specialized fish-eye lenses underwater in the Florida Keys with the hope of applying street-view mapping to research and management plans in marine sanctuaries across the country. 

Some of the rotating and panoramic images will be available online, giving the public a window into eco-systems difficult and costly to explore for long stretches of time. 

It will be like scuba diving from a computer.

Some 400,000 images have already been produced of reefs off Australia and in the Caribbean. The images in the US will add scale and details to data that has already been collected, and illustrate the successes and failures of coral restoration. They will also help scientists to study the effects of warming ocean temperatures, pollution and hurricanes on reefs, officials said.

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