Google Maps unveiled its first underwater maps today.
With the Street View feature, users can take virtual scuba dives at six coral reefs around the world, including three locations on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, volcanic Apo Island in the Philippines, Hanauma Bay in Oahu, and the coral reef in the Molokini crater in Maui.
Many more dives are planned for the future.
To capture the panoramic images, Google teamed up with the Catlin Seaview Survey, using a tablet-controlled SVII camera. The cutting-edge device can travel underwater at four kilometers per hour and takes 360-degree images every three seconds.
The camera also records GPS data. So viewers could conceivably explore a coral reef online and then travel to the same spot in real life.
"Starting today, you can use Google Maps to find a sea turtle swimming among a school of fish, follow a manta ray and experience the reef at sunset - just as I did on my first dive in the Great Barrier Reef last year," said Brian McClendon, vice president of Google Maps and Earth.
"Whether you're a marine biologist, an avid scuba diver or a landlocked landlubber, we encourage you to dive in and explore the ocean with Google Maps."
The update to Google's popular mapping software comes just after Apple ended its support for the program on its new iPhone 5 model. Instead, iPhones now use the Maps app that comes bundled with iOS 6.
Odd satellite views and poor directions have plagued the new app, and it has been widely panned by iPhone users who can no longer use Google Maps on their phones.
Many analysts and users have assumed that an iOS 6 version of Google Maps was in the works, but Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt said on Tuesday that an iPhone version was unlikely anytime soon.
"We've not done anything yet," Schmidt said. Still, he hasn't ruled out an eventual deal with Apple. "We've been in touch with them for a long time and we talk to them every day," he said.
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