If you’re a fan of Google Earth, and it’s hard not to be, then as a diver you might be thrilled at the thought of Google Earth’ing below the sea’s surface. Well, almost.

The new Google Earth 5 Beta brings the ocean deep right to your desktop. Although it is not possible to capture the underwater world via satellite imagery like it is of land, through ocean-floor data called bathymetrics, it is possible to fairly reliably render the lay of the (submerged) land.

The new ocean layer in Google Earth 5 offers you this and a host of complementary content from partners such as National Geographic, the BBC, Cousteau Ocean World and a wealth of others.

Information about ocean expeditions, marine protected areas, endangered ocean species; they are all at the tip of your mouse pointer, indicated by icons as you fly over the planet’s oceans to your favourite dive, surf or holiday destination.

Fancy tracking a pelagic critter? The ocean layer has that too – at the time of this post a whale shark is visible, currently at latitude 9.7377 longitude 100.9932, south off Indonesia.

The ocean layer even includes marine life census data, historical maps, ocean sports and whole section on the state of the ocean, including ocean observations, sea surface temperatures, dead zones and human impacts.

Boot up the PC, load Google Earth 5 and prepare to explore the oceans like you never thought possible.