Underwater Street View

Over 99% of people have never been scuba diving — and most never will. That creates a fundamental challenge for ocean conservation: how do you inspire people to care about a world they rarely get to see?

Our big idea was to take Google Street View underwater. With founding sponsor Catlin Insurance, we developed the Catlin Seaview Survey, combining groundbreaking technology, global science, and storytelling to bring the world's coral reefs into view.

To make it possible, we developed the custom-built SVII, a pioneering underwater 360-degree camera system that captured high-resolution imagery for Google Street View. For the first time, anyone could take a virtual dive and explore coral reefs around the world.

The response was extraordinary. More people went virtual diving in the first week of launch than had ever scuba dived in person. The imagery went on to attract billions of views, reaching an audience far beyond what traditional ocean outreach could achieve.

But the project went well beyond bringing people underwater. Across multiple years, the survey documented coral reefs in nearly 30 countries, capturing over a million images and creating an unprecedented visual record of reef health. The imagery also provided researchers with new tools to monitor changes in coral reefs over time.

By combining innovation, science and communication, the Catlin Seaview Survey changed how the world could see, explore and understand the ocean, and demonstrated the power of making the invisible visible.