by Lalitha Subbaraman

Created on: July 27, 2011   Last Updated: July 29, 2011

What are The Seven Underwater Wonders of the World? It's time to dive into the realm of the oceans and explore in depth with virtual scuba diving gears.

The Seven Underwater Wonders of the World was a selective list created by CEDAM International, a non profit, American based organization of divers.The organization's main goal is to preserve ocean and conduct research regarding the marine ecological-system. They gathered a committee of marine biologists to choose underwater regions which are special with marine species for conservation and protection. The selection criteria is based on the beauty, environmental importance, marine life and research potential for the present and the future. The project began in 1989. They announced their list at  the national aquarium in Washington DC.

Palau: Palau is one of the chosen Seven Underwater wonders of the World. It is a small nation with the most biologically varied coral reefs of the blue planet. Marine biologists discovered about 700 coral species and 150 various species of fishes.Some of them are blue-healed wrasses, sea-cows, whales, shell fish,  octopus and mantha ray . Palau is located 2000 miles south of Tokyo and 500 mile east of Philippines.

Palau is a diver's paradise,  and its ecological-system is delicate. Palau's government introduced initiatives to protect coastal waters and forests. Coral bleaching is a threat due to  increasing  ocean temperature. Increasing ocean  temperature is caused by the natural hurricanes and global warming also. Coral reefs face dangers due to unregulated tourism, shipping and fishing.

Thermal vents : Deep sea vents are also regarded as hydro-thermal vents, deep water seeps, deep sea springs. They are superb submarine geysers. They occur due to the geo-thermal energy. Hydro-thermal Vents exist in various  regions of the  world. They sustain a strange, striking ecological-system. Marine biologists believed that the life of  species cannot exist without the source of sun light during the past decades.  The life of micro-organism exist and thrive well within the ecological system of thermal vents without the source of sun light. The first thermal vent was discovered east of the Galapagos islands. Hydro-thermal vents are active near volcanically active regions and areas where tectonic plates are sliding away.

Galapagos Islands: Galapagos Islands is a symbol of the Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest. Galapagos island's

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