Is nowhere safe from Google?

Seaview offers virtual tours of the world's great coral reefs

It has covered streets, parks, historic monuments, and even Scott's hut in the Antarctic.

Now, Google has gone underwater for its latest addition to its street view service - with tours of the world's greatest coral reefs.

The firm has partnered with the Catlin Seaview Survey to add areas from the Great Barrier reef to Monterey Bay.

Using specially designed tabletoperated underwater camera,the project aims to collect 50,000 images that will be collected through continuous high-resolution, 360-degree panoramic imagery.When stitched together, these images will allow people to choose a location along the Great Barrier Reef, dip underwater and go for a viewer-controlled virtual dive in Google Maps.

The Catlin Seaview Survey is sponsored by Catlin Group Limited, an international specialty property/casualty insurer and reinsurer.

'The Global Reef Record is a game-changing scientific tool that scientists around the world will have at their fingertips,' said the project's chief scientist, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the Global Change Institute at The University of Queensland.

'They will be able to monitor change in marine environments now and in the future.

'Marine scientists researching any aspect of the reef will be able to study these environments from any of the surveys we conduct.

It's incredibly rewarding and exciting to be leading a talented team of scientists as the first Catlin Seaview Survey expedition begins.

'The possibilities of what we will discover about coral reefs are almost endless.

'And right now, information on how these endangered ecosystems are responding to climate change is incredibly important, given that almost 25 percent of marine species live in and around coral reefs,' Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.

Google said the images will help users understand more about the sea.

'We are partnering with the Catlin Seaview Survey to make this amazing imagery available to more than one billion monthly users of Google Maps across the world.