Virtual Panoramic Tour Of Spring Lake Launched By Flying FishViews

Posted by Staff

SAN MARCOS – An innovative, virtual panoramic tour of Spring Lake at Texas State University had been released by Flying FishViews, Inc., (F2V) with cooperation with The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.

F2V’s digital maps (called FishViews) offer a unique perspective for navigating waterways online. Using street view-style panoramic imagery, collected from the surface of the water and fused with other location-specific information like water quality data, F2V delivers a comprehensive visual and data-driven experience that enables science, recreation and conservation.

Available on the website F2V.me, the Spring Lake

FishView tour shows F2V’s commitment to our waterways by demonstrating online access to digital maps of aquatic environments. The Spring Lake tour may be accessed at http://F2V.me/spring-lake.html).

“F2V has created an innovative platform for gathering, understanding and exchanging important information about the world’s most crucial natural resource: water,” said Shane Townsend, senior program advisor for strategic communication at The Meadows Center.

Spring Lake is an iconic pool on the Texas State campus fed by more than 200 underwater springs originating from the Edwards Aquifer. The lake is believed to be one of the longest continually inhabited sites in North America. Spear points found there provide archeological evidence that humans have lived in the area surrounding Spring Lake for more than 12,000 years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, have designated Spring Lake and the upper 3.8 miles of the San Marcos River headwaters as critical habitat for eight endangered species, such as the Texas blind salamander and Texas wild rice.

Through the Spring Lake FishView tour, users can virtually float and snorkel the lake, with F2V-collected data and call-outs to important physical and biological features.

“Shane Townsend, Aaron Wallendorf and Taylor Heard of The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University were a great help in mapping Spring Lake and have since provided substantive inputs to help improve our product,” said Scott Gallagher, F2V co-founder. “I know that Texas State and the City of San Marcos take great pride in Spring Lake and the San Marcos River, and we at F2V look forward to rolling out the San Marcos River tour early in 2015.”

F2V is a Seattle-based tech startup that spent the last 20 months developing technology to capture and present FishViews, a fresh way to tell the story of rivers, coasts and shores. FishViews provide a rich, immersive browsing experience that enables greater understanding of a specific location or area.

For more information on FishViews and future virtual tours of Texas waterways, visit http://F2V.me.

About The Meadows Center 

The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment was named following a generous gift from The Meadows Foundation in August 2012. The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment is dedicated to environmental research, stewardship, education and service. It is run by renowned conservationist Andrew Sansom.