It has been no easy chore to compile and digitize countless hours of deep sea dives. But finally, the efforts of University of Hawaii biologist Christopher Kelly's are paying off for all to see.

"From our standpoint, we are hoping to build awareness of these animals because people don’t care about them if they don't know about them.  If they see how gorgeous many of the animals are then they start to care about them," said Kelly.

This month, the University of Hawaii rolled out a database which was only previously available only to researchers.

It includes some strange looking creatures, including images of a spikey red crab which looks like a small spider, but is really about two-feet-long.

The new guide shares the snapshots of the marine life in their natural surroundings.

But it is a resource like no other.

All thanks to mini-submarines operated by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory and the painstaking cataloging by Kelly.

"It's taken a long time, because we have thousands and thousands of images and you have to sift through those, and do the best you can to get the correct names," said Kelly.  "There are a lot of images out there on the internet that are inaccurately identified."

Kelly says Hawaii probably has the most variety of deep water corals and sponges

and of all the video he has screened he thinks the sponges are the most amazing.