This paper present the control of the image disparity of a parallel stereo camera and its application to an underwater stereo camera to enhance the working efficiency of underwater vehicles that are equiped with manipulators in seabed operation. The stereo camera consists of two parallel lenses mounted on a lateral moving base and two CCD cameras mounted on a longitudinal moving base, which is embedded in a small pressure canister for underwater application. Because the lateral shift is related to the backward shift with a nonlinear relation, only one control input is needed to control the vergence and focus of the camera with a special driving device. We can get clear stereo vision with the camera for all the range of objects in air and in water, especially in short range object. The control system of the camera is so simple that we are able to realize a small stereo camera system and apply it to a stereo vision system for underwater vehicles. This paper also shows how to acquire the distance information of an underwater object with this stereo camera. Whenever we focus on an underwater object with the camera, we can obtain three-dimensional images and distance information in real-time.