Landlocked. Stuck at school. Can't swim. The excuses might have been barriers for ocean exploration in the past, but no longer.

Students and Internet users everywhere can now follow along as scientists dive through kelp forests, swim alongside whales and otters and otherwise study the vast underwater world of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

"We're allowing students and Internet viewers to experience the underwater world of Monterey Bay without even getting wet," said Sarah Marquis, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Sanctuary Program.

"The goal is to increase ocean literacy," said Dawn Hayes, education outreach coordinator for the National Marine Sanctuary Program. "We really want to make the connection between students on land, no matter where they live, and the ocean."

The National Marine Sanctuary Program teamed up with the University of Rhode Island and the Mystic Aquarium & the Institute for Exploration to broadcast 30-minute shows live online and on Internet2, the noncommercial academic and government Internet, to 54 Boys and Girls Clubs of America and 30 other sites across the country.

The shows are broadcast live from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's research vessel, the Fulmar, and from special underwater cameras that follow scientists and ROVs as they dive beneath the waves.

The science education program is called Immersion Presents, and can be viewed by