Google Earth Goes Underwater

A new Google Earth tool has been launched which will enable users to visit the world's protected marine sites "virtually". A new downloadable 'layer' will allow users to view videos, photographs and articles when they hover the cursor over marine protected areas of the map. the initiative was launched last year by Google Earth outreach and content for the marine reserves has been provided by NOAA, National Geographic and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature...

Not all of the 4,500 marine protected areas are featured on Google Earth, ( http://earth.google.com/ )but it's creators say that it is a groundbreaking way of getting people all over the world interested in their environment. "We sat down and said 'let's open this up, let people around the world who might be passionate about their (marine protected area), who might be passionate about the water in their backyard, let them contribute to this,'" Miller (project manager for Google Earth) said.

Have a play with it ... it's pretty cool.

Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2008-10-29