How to Explore the Ocean's Depths Without Leaving Your Desk

Humans have spent years in space and days on the moon. We've even got a little rover roaming around Mars, taking adorable selfies. But we’ve explored less than 5 percent of the vast depths of our oceans. (And they’re really, really deep: Off the coast of Guam, the ocean floor is so far down you could drop Mount Everest in there and still have a mile to spare.) That's either sad or exciting—there's so much exploring left to do! And we'd better hurry. Pollution, overfishing, global warming, and invasive species are endangering and killing off some sea creatures before we even get to know them, the world's great coral reefs are withering, and rising sea levels are encroaching on our shores. Thankfully, plenty of humans have devoted their time to studying—and safeguarding—the mysteries of the deep. Here's how you can join them while seated on dry land, in front of your computer.

Monterey Bay Aquarium's Instagram (And Seafood Watch)

I'm going to start this off with a cute one:

There's more of where that came from in the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Instagram feed, which is full of otters, cuttlefish, seahorses, and ridiculous sunfish that look like Picasso paintings gone wrong. There are baby octopi, too.

The creatures in their collection have a dual purpose: You'll squee over them, and then you'll feel an urge to protect them. And that's where the aquarium's Seafood Watch app comes in—the tool makes it easy to track which kinds of seafood are ok to eat, and which kinds are overfished and no good for the ocean and environment. (Bluefin tuna, ptooey!)

Google Map's Ocean 'Street' Views
If you don't have the time (or are too afraid of flying) to brave the 15-hour flight to Australia's Great Barrier reef, you can visit it from your desk. The Caitlin Seaview Survey and Google have teamed up to photograph the ocean's many reef ecosystems in 360-degree views that'll make you feel like you're swimming with the fishes. Poke around a shipwreck off the coast of Aruba. Stare down humpback whales near the Cook Islands. Take in the electric colors of the Outer Devil's Crown in Galapagos. The Seaview project is also creating an invaluable database that scientists can use to track the health of the world's coral, recording wins—and losses—resulting from changes in our ocean's ever-warming temperature.

David Shiffman's 'Why Sharks Matter' Twitter Feed
'Tis the season. It's the tail end of Shark Week, that venerable (and sometimes scientifically questionable) tradition on the Discovery Channel. So for a taste of real shark science, spend some time on biologist David Shiffman's Twitter feed. If you can't already tell from his handle, Shiffman loves sharks and passionately defends their right to roam the oceans and fill your head with that Jaws theme music whenever you think about them. And by the way, Great Whites are so 2004. He wants to see more of the underdogs:

The Echinoblog by Biologist Chris Mah
Sharks are amazing. But the ocean's invertebrates, from the most microscopic plankton to pulsating throngs of neon jellyfish, deserve attention, too. They are, after all, vital parts of the ocean's complex food chain and delicate ecosystem. Enthusiastic biologist Chris Mah explores the incredible lives and diversity of the ocean's invertebrates with a lot of exclamation marks. Just on his own, he's identified 24 new species of starfishes, and he maintains a taxonomy of starfish genera. Mah can also tell you about the disturbing life cycle of the pearlfish, a creature that swims up sea cucumbers' butts and eats their gonads.

Adrift's Global Interactive Ocean Map
Inspired by research that followed 29,000 rubber duckies lost at sea and the unexpected locales where they ended up, this map is a quirky—but troubling—way to visualize pollution and its far-reaching effects on our planet. Click anywhere in the ocean on Adrift's interactive map, and then sit back and watch where the trash you just dumped into the water will drift in one year, two years, 10 years. The map focuses on plastic waste, which is often the worst offender—it's not biodegradable and can ensnare and poison marine life in devastating ways. The scientific tracking methods used by the map also apply to irradiated debris strewn in the ocean after the Fukushima disaster. Oh my, it didn't take long for that to hit the coast of California, did it?