Google Earth Update

[Ornery Bob]

I've had Google Earth installed since it came out and because I recently moved to Long Beach, I've been using it a lot lately to look for places to fish.

I normally keep my computer's desktop free of icons (trash bin and that's it) so when I sat down this evening and saw a Google Earth icon had appeared, I knew it must have updated. Boy, did it ever.

I have no way of knowing if it did the same for other areas, but the pictures of my part of the world got way more detailed. I'm talking about being able to see underwater structure! Because I have fished these areas from shore, I know that some of what I'm seeing is most likely stands of eel grass and some of it is rocks and some of it probaly just deeper areas. Whatever it is, it's some sort of underwater structure and I'm amazed.

The whole of the "long beach" just got a lot more interesting. If this is your AO, you won't want to miss this.

Check out the underwater rocks coming off the end of the jetty at the west end of the beach.

[Theos]

I've had Google Earth installed since it came out and because I recently moved to Long Beach, I've been using it a lot lately to look for places to fish.

I normally keep my computer's desktop free of icons (trash bin and that's it) so when I sat down this evening and saw a Google Earth icon had appeared, I knew it must have updated. Boy, did it ever.

I have no way of knowing if it did the same for other areas, but the pictures of my part of the world got way more detailed. I'm talking about being able to see underwater structure! Because I have fished these areas from shore, I know that some of what I'm seeing is most likely stands of eel grass and some of it is rocks and some of it probaly just deeper areas. Whatever it is, it's some sort of underwater structure and I'm amazed.

The whole of the "long beach" just got a lot more interesting. If this is your AO, you won't want to miss this.

Check out the underwater rocks coming off the end of the jetty at the west end of the beach.

Keep in mind that earth estimates the underwater topography, ocean structure changes and earth is usually a few months behind, take a ride down your block and note the date. Thats the last time the google car drove down your block and created the image, the same is true for the satellite.

[Ornery Bob]

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you're wrong about the key point here.

Google Earth doesn't "estimate the underwater topography." Google Earth is satellite photographs - there's no estimating of anything and until this most recent update, there was no visible underwater topography. The underwater rocks you can clearly see in the above screenshot have never been visible before. That's the whole point. If you follow that image down the beach, you will see areas just outside of the waves where there are rocks and stands of eel grass, and where the shallow bottom is just sand. All of this detail is new.

It may seem like just another update to you, but to me, someone who surf fishes this very beach, I see GPS coordinates and visual references of fishing structure. Looks like a million dollar fish finder to me. May be no biggie to anyone else, but I think Long Beach shore fishermen have been handed a gold mine. And just between you and me, I'm guessing there is a pissed off float tuber or two who sees me giving away their secret lobster spot.

[Theos]

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you're wrong about the key point here.

Google Earth doesn't "estimate the underwater topography." Google Earth is satellite photographs - there's no estimating of anything and until this most recent update, there was no visible underwater topography. The underwater rocks you can clearly see in the above screenshot have never been visible before. That's the whole point. If you follow that image down the beach, you will see areas just outside of the waves where there are rocks and stands of eel grass, and where the shallow bottom is just sand. All of this detail is new.

It may seem like just another update to you, but to me, someone who surf fishes this very beach, I see GPS coordinates and visual references of fishing structure. Looks like a million dollar fish finder to me. May be no biggie to anyone else, but I think Long Beach shore fishermen have been handed a gold mine. And just between you and me, I'm guessing there is a pissed off float tuber or two who sees me giving away their secret lobster spot.

"They're able to predict what the seafloor looks like using an extrapolation of water surface heights to estimate undersea mountains and canyons, based on radar data collected by satellite (if you're curious about this process, you can read Smith and Sandwell's more detailed explanation"

https://maps.googleblog.com/2010/02/...er-before.html

[shinbob]

there's no estimating of anything and until this most recent update, there was no visible underwater topography. The underwater rocks you can clearly see in the above screenshot have never been visible before.

If you look at the lower left-hand corner of the Google Earth screen, you can see a little clock with a year. Mine says "1994" for that area of Long Beach. Click on it, and in the top left corner you'll be able to see a slider showing history of the photos for that particular area. You can clearly see underwater structure in photos going back as far as 10 years ago. Sometimes the view is better, sometimes worse, depending on the sun angle and the tide levels.

This is a very interesting tool that you can use to see how the sand formations shift over the years.

[Ornery Bob]

Good information, shinbob, thanks!

I've been studying this area closely on Google Earth for the past few months and never saw structure before, which is why I got excited. I'm not talking about undersea mountains and canyons, I'm talking about the parts of the ocean I can reach from shore with a fishing line. With this current data, I can stand on the beach and pinpoint my location via my phone's GPS and see what structure is in the water right in front of me.

Seems pretty cool to me, but I'm obviously alone on this. Oh well.

[DEVOREFLYER]

If you’re a boater Google Earth is a heck of a tool to use in conjunction with your boat electronics and boat GPS. The tool bar at the top of Google Earth (history) will allow you to go back in time and look at the lakes at various water levels and in some cases before the lake was dammed and filled. I have invested a lot of time looking at Silverwood, Perris and DVL and shortened my learning curve. Using GPS points from Google and entering them into your boat GPS you can sit over the structure you saw on Google. If you have down imaging and side scan capability on board along with the knowledge you got form Google your learning curve on freshwater lakes can be shortened quickly. Of course you still have to have the ability to catch them Google and the best electronics won’t help you unfortunately.