Iconic P.E.I. landscapes to join Google Street View

P.E.I.'s iconic North Shore beaches are about to join the Grand Canyon and the Eiffel Tower on Google's Street View project.

To capture the footage, Luc Thomas of the Nature Conservancy of Canada will be hiking in the St. Peters areacarrying specializedcamera gear supplied byGoogle.

We decided to go with St. Peters Harbour because it is off the beaten path and because of that it is more tranquil.- Julie Vasseur

"It's a unit that contains a globe that's held by a metal bracket on a backpack. It contains 15 cameras, it takes a picture every 2.5 seconds and gives you a panoramic view of the scenery that you're walking," Thomas told Island Morningbefore heading to the North Shore on Tuesday morning.

"So wherever you walk, you'll be able to capture images around you, top, bottom and people will be able to virtually look at the path you've taken."

'Off the beaten path'

This isn't the first time the Nature Conservancy has used the Google technology. The group has filmed a number of its protected land holdings across the country. P.E.I. wasn't on the list last year, but area manager Julie Vasseurknew what she wanted filmed this year.

"Of course on P.E.I the first place you have to show is the North Shore of P.E.I. And so we decided to go with St. Peters Harbour because it is off the beaten path and because of that it is more tranquil."

The team will also travel to an area it protects that's virtually impossible to get to by foot in the Murray Harbour area. Pictures of that land holding will be takenfrom a boat.

Once the photographs are collected, they'll be stitched together by Google and added to the Street Viewproject.

"We're hopeful these images will be available early next year," added Thomas.

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