| The Catlin Seaview Crew films Curacao's reefs, equipped with the SVII camera. (Photo Credit: Catlin Seaview Survey) |
The Curaçao coral reef, one of the most beautiful in the world, can soon be seen via the popular Google Maps ‘virtual diving’ platform. The Catlin Seaview research team, an underwater film unit, has spent the past several weeks surveying and photographing the reef for Google as well as collecting scientific data to be utilized in future reef research.
In addition to traditional dives, the research team utilized the popular tourist attraction, the submarine Curasub to capture footage of the reef. Because the Curasub travels at greater depths than divers can reach, it’s often used for scientific marine research.
More than one third of the island’s coral has been filmed, at depths varying from 30 feet to 300 feet. Curaçao’s coral reef is the second reef to be captured in this way; the first was the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
