Apple Maps on iOS 6 might be giving you a bad time but Google Maps has given users another reason to cheer. According to an official Google blogpost, Maps will now let users access underwater pictures from some parts of the world.
The post reads:
Today we’re adding the very first underwater panoramic images to Google Maps, the next step in our quest to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world… Now, anyone can become the next virtual Jacques Cousteau and dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.
So what does the new feature offer users? Remember the locations are a bit limited but that still doesn’t take away the fact that underwater imagery on the map is a very cool add on.
Google Maps: Underwater mode.
• Sea turtles at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef, follow a manta ray and enjoy the sunset at the Barrier Reef
• At Apo Island, a volcanic island and marine reserve in the Philippines, users can see an ancient boulder coral.
• In the middle of the Pacific, in Hawaii, you can join snorkelers in Oahu’s Hanauma Bay and drift over the vast coral reef at Maui’s Molokini crater.
Google partnered with The Catlin Seaview Survey, a major scientific study of the world’s reefs, to make these pictures available. The post mentions that the Survey team used a specially designed underwater camera, the SVII, to capture these photos. All images are in panoramic mode and you can zoom in and out.
Google and The Catlin Seaview Survey hope that as more people see the images, they will realise the urgency with which coral reefs and sea life need to preserved.
