guardian.co.uk,
Jessica Aldred, Wednesday 26 September 2012
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| Google Maps screenshots. The Catlin Seaview Survey is series of scientific expeditions to explore and record the world's coral reefs. Photograph: Catlin Seaview Survey |
Millions of
people will be able to take a virtual dive on the Great Barrier Reef via Google
Maps on Wednesday as part of a pioneering underwater scientific expedition.
The Catlin Seaview Survey will allow internet users to share the discoveries of scientists
who are using new technology to study the composition and health of the Great
Barrier Reef.
Up to
50,000 high-definition panoramic images of the reef will be taken by the
world's first tablet-operated underwater camera and geolocated. When the
rapid-fire images are linked together, users will be able to choose a location
along the reef, dip underwater and go for a viewer-controlled virtual dive
using the street view feature of Google Maps.
Dives
already completed at three islands on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as sites
in Hawaii and the Philippines, will be available today, with more images
virtual dive sites added as the scientists map 20 separate reefs along the
2,300km system to a depth of 100m.
The imagery
will be available to more than 1 billion monthly users of Google Maps around
the world, as well as through a dedicated YouTube channel, Google+ and
Panoramio, a geolocation photo-sharing website. The survey was launched with a
live night dive via a Google+ Hangout at the Blue Ocean film festival in
Monterey, California.
The
three-month survey of the Australian reef system is the first in a series of
Catlin Seaview surveys to explore and record the world's coral reefs. Next
year, the expedition will move on to Hawaii, the Philippines and Bermuda.
The survey
aims to make the underwater experience accessible to the public in a way that
has never before been possible, and help bridge the gap between scientific
awareness and public knowledge. It is sponsored by the UK-based insurance
company Catlin, and backed with technology from Google and support from NGOs,
research institutes and the University of Queensland (UQ).
"From
a scientific point of view, this survey is about getting a baseline record of
the world's coral reefs and how they are being affected by climate change,"
said the project's chief scientist, Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, from the GlobalChange Institute at UQ. "But it's also about engaging the public with this
issue. Most of us haven't been lucky enough to dive on a reef but by using
these tools, people will know what we mean by the beauty and diversity of our
coral reefs."
Around 50%
of the world's coral reefs have been lost in the past 30 years to pollution,
overfishing and climate change, which is increasing sea temperatures and
elevating levels of ocean acidity. Coral reefs support the lives of millions of
people worldwide and a quarter of the world's marine species, and are an
important indicator of the health of the seas.
Shallow
reef surveys will involve scientists using state-of-the-art digital technology
to capture images of the reef that can be linked to create a virtual dive
experience. Automated technologies for rapidly assessing the amount of amount
of coral cover and other life forms will provide a "baseline" for
understanding change. The cameras for the shallow reef survey, the SVII, have
been specially designed to take 360-degree, geolocated panoramic images every
4-6 seconds while travelling at 4kph.
The deep
reef survey will use diving robots and HD cameras to explore and reveal
habitats that are rarely visited by humans. In ecosystems like the Great
Barrier Reef, more than 90% has not been explored because it is more than 40m –
too deep for scuba divers.
Scientists
will use the deep survey to assess the potential for the deep reef to host
"refugee" communities of species under stress because of bleaching
and changes in the shallow reef due to climate change.
They also
hope to discover new species – a pilot study on Heron Island revealed a new
species of pygmy seahorse and four new species of coral.
"This
is a real opportunity to understand the story of climate change and natural
ecosytems, Hoegh-Guldberg said. "At the end of the three-year survey we
will have an important snapshot and understanding of the state of coral reefs
across the planet."
All of the
data gathered will be made public in a database called the Global Reef Record,
a "game-changing scientific tool", according to Hoegh-Guldberg.
"We will be able to monitor change in marine environments now and in the
future. Marine scientists researching researching any aspect of the reef will
be able to study these environments from any of the surveys we conduct –
shallow reef or deep reef."
"We
want to make these special underwater locations as accessible to people as the
roads and landmarks they explore in Google Maps each day," said Jenifer
Austin Foulkes, Google's oceans manager.
The survey
was unveiled at the World Ocean Summit in Singapore in February.
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