Smithsonian to unveil new Sant Ocean Hall

If the seven-foot-tall prehistoric shark jaws don’t catch your eye, keep moving. A model of a 45-foot-long North Atlantic whale hangs overhead and a 24-foot-long giant squid floats in a tank below.

Welcome to The Sant Ocean Hall, scheduled to open September 27th at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The new 23,000-square-foot hall is the most ambitious project at the museum since it opened in 1910. The hall is also the museum’s largest exhibition.

"The ocean is a vast ecosystem crucial to our existence, yet scientific and public understanding of the ocean is still limited,” said Museum Director Cristián Samper. “That’s why the new Sant Ocean Hall is so vitally important"

The Smithsonian Institution worked closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to create the new hall, designed to allow visitors to explore the unknown depths of the ocean and appreciate the ocean as essential to all life.

The hall includes a combination of 674 marine specimens and models, high-definition video experiences, exhibits and the newest technology to allow visitors to explore the ocean’s past, present and future.

In addition to the “Open Ocean” area, the hall features 10 sections which address topics including the deep ocean, coral reefs, the North and South Poles and current ocean research.

Visitors will find a variety of marine life, from the smallest microorganism to the largest animals ever known. The Sant Ocean Hall will also be the only place in the world to exhibit both an adult coelacanth and its pup. The prehistoric fish was considered extinct until 1938, when a fisherman caught one off the coast of South Africa.

“There are definitely things you aren’t going to see anywhere else,” said Bill Watson, chief of onsite learning at the National Museum of Natural History.

In addition to a 1,500-gallon live coral reef section, Watson said students will love “Science on a Sphere,” a six-foot globe that shows real-time ocean currents, storms and temperatures in motion. Another highlight is the “Ocean Explorer Theater,” which takes visitors on a virtual manned submersible dive with scientists as they make deep ocean discoveries. Watson said he also expects kids to be particularly captivated by Phoenix, a North Atlantic right whale model.

Phoenix is a 45-foot-long model of a real right whale scientists have been tracking since 1987. Visitors will not only see her likeness, but also learn her story. She was seen tangled in fishing lines in 1997—usually fatal for the endangered whale—but scientists were relieved to find her again—alive—in 1999. She was last spotted July 29, 2008 in the gulf of Maine, Watson said. There are only about 400 North Atlantic whales left in the world, and humans are their most significant threat.

Students visiting the hall should walk away with a better understanding of how important it is to protect the ocean and its life, Watson said. The hall also offers a unique perspective on the featured objects as well as ideal teaching opportunities for class groups.

“It’s really multi-disciplinary. Not only the objects, but the scientists who study them and the way they study them, are also highlighted,” he said.

Teachers planning a visit can get ready by using the Smithsonian’s Sant Ocean Hall educator’s guide, which will be available online at http://www.mnh.si.edu/education. The guide complements the exhibit and provides teachers with options for engaging their students at different levels, Watson said.

For more information about the Sant Ocean Hall, visit http://ocean.si.edu/ocean_hall.