Summary: More often than not, geographic representation of the marine environment strips the ecosystem of its habitat richness, biodiversity and verticality. Mapping the marine environment in GIS results in marine features represented as a 2D plane on the sea surface or as bare bathymetry. These are geographically accurate, but not visually pleasing nor comprehensive in representing marine ecosystems. In contrast, gaming and virtual reality programs produce attractive visuals but are not geographically referenced. This talk presents the integration of GIS geographic referencing with landscape visualisation principles and software to develop geographically accurate and visually attractive models of the marine environment. A seascape visualisaton model of an offshore protected seamount was presented to marine protected area (MPA) planners and scientists for feedback. Based on results, further work is currently under way to improve the model for MPA planners, scientists, users and visitors.
