Google streetview of the ocean

[anthonymit]

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/gallery.html#!/ocean

 

[iSwaizy]

Really nice pictures.

 

[Blueflu1]

I was excited when I heard of this but correct me if I wrong. I recently saw a story on the news that the barrier reef was dying for unknown reasons. In viewing the google view of the reef, it looks to me like there is a lot of color missing and possibly a lot of dead reef. Is it my imagination? It saddened me to hear that the greatest reef in the world is dying.

 

[johnnyb]

I just got back from Bermuda and went diving on the reef there. I think one thing that surprised me was the lack if color. I think we are kind of spoiled by our tanks. We dove and saw lots of fish corrals and anemones. But it wasn't as I had pictured it. The live rock is covered in brown silt the fish are ever where but coral is spread out through the whole thing. You would see a leather then swim 10 feet before seeing an anemone. I think at least I thought it would be like my tank. I forget there is a reason it is so hard to keep a variety of coral together in one small place and duplicate the conditions to make them happy. Stuff we try and keep in 3 feet if water was spread across 15 feet of depth on the reef. I have some pictures I will post we took under water in a few days when I get settled. But looking at the google pics is pretty much what I experienced and the guy I dove with said this is what a reef looks like and the aquariums we see are not reality

 

[Tcancel]

I just got back from Bermuda and went diving on the reef there. I think one thing that surprised me was the lack if color. I think we are kind of spoiled by our tanks. We dove and saw lots of fish corrals and anemones. But it wasn't as I had pictured it. The live rock is covered in brown silt the fish are ever where but coral is spread out through the whole thing. You would see a leather then swim 10 feet before seeing an anemone. I think at least I thought it would be like my tank. I forget there is a reason it is so hard to keep a variety of coral together in one small place and duplicate the conditions to make them happy. Stuff we try and keep in 3 feet if water was spread across 15 feet of depth on the reef. I have some pictures I will post we took under water in a few days when I get settled. But looking at the google pics is pretty much what I experienced and the guy I dove with said this is what a reef looks like and the aquariums we see are not reality

It looks very different, here is the reason. White light is made out of multiple color spectrums, as it travels underwater there is a rapid loss of light, depending on the wavelenght. This is called, selective absorption. The color spectrums that suffers the most are red, orange, yellow and purple. The red is completley gone in about 12 feet. So basically the colors are there, unfortunatelly our eyes cant see it, unless you bring and artificial light source. Maybe the brown stuff you saw was actually red. I SCUBA a lot in Puerto Rico, the first time i felt the same way you did. The best places to see colors are to find shallow reefs, keep that in mind next time you go on vacation. Hope this info helped.

 

[johnnyb]

I agree that it was an absence of spectrum at depth but a lot of the rock was covered in silt as u could swish it away and clean it up. Maybe it was because of the recent storm before we got there stirring it up idk it was my first time at a reef. But the corals themselves were very colorful as they had cleaned them selves of the silt.