Ocean Hall – NOAA adds salt water to grow a national legacy

Perhaps most important, people must understand the role the oceans have on their lives and livelihoods and the impacts they themselves have on the oceans -- U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy

In 2004, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy called for a new era, one that links people to the marine environment and builds national support for a healthy ocean. The U.S. Ocean Action Plan also highlighted the importance behind wise management of the global ocean, a resource which covers 71 percent of our planet. With calls for action and financial support from Congress, a unique partnership was advocated between the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History - the most visited natural history museum in the world – and NOAA, a global leader in oceanic and atmospheric research and provider of information products. Together they are ideally positioned to raise ocean awareness through the Smithsonian’s new Ocean Science Initiative which is designed to bring science and education together and includes an Ocean Web Portal, a cross-cutting museum marine science program and a national exhibition on the ocean.

On September 25, 2008, the Ocean Hall doors will open wide and reveal the largest permanent exhibit ever created at the museum – 23,000 square feet, and it could run for 30 years. Spectacular images, world renowned marine specimens and 21^st century multimedia exhibits will reiterate a central message throughout seven galleries - “The ocean is a global system essential to ALL life, including yours.” NOAA data, software, imagery, and expertise will be used, provided to the Smithsonian via a team which cuts across the agency.

(Left) The transition from renovation of the hall to fabrication of the exhibit occurred in summer 2007. (Right) Artist rendition of the Ocean Hall.

For the past four years, curators, educators, scientists, writers, and designers have brainstormed, imagined and discussed what should be in a national exhibit on the ocean. They also discussed how to bring the hall alive. High definition imagery, six-foot programmable globe, deep ocean theater, and a 1,500 gallon Indo-Pacific coral reef aquarium are just a few ways visitors will be welcomed into the magical realm of the ocean. Choreographed ocean footage will play in the upper reaches of the hall. Underwater scenes of ocean life will shimmer and move through architectural medallions in the hall’s upper bay - imagery obtained around the world. The area renovated for the hall was once an open space, with 52-foot ceilings. Over its nearly 100-year history however, it was divided into smaller areas, which continued to be divided again into even smaller spaces. Funding for the hall has been used to restore it to the original architectural envelope, including removing false ceilings to reveal the original skylights.

The hall’s ambassador and icon – a life-sized replica of an endangered 50-foot North Atlantic right whale – will hold a central place in the hall, physically and thematically. The model is of Phoenix, a living whale who survived entanglement and has given birth to three calves. The museum says it has taken a village to create her - designers, painters, sculptors, whale biologists, electricians, and fabricators. For the story and challenges behind building her see the Smithsonian's How to Build a 50-foot Whale Model. Phoenix’s story represents survival and stewardship, a theme that resonates with NOAA and throughout the hall.

Students watch a Science on a Sphere lesson.

NOAA’s Science On a Sphere will illustrate global ocean processes. Photo courtesy Will von Dauster, NOAA

Artists drawing of interactive computer stations in the Gallery

Interactive computer stations in the hall’s human connections gallery - Living on an Ocean Planet Gallery. Illustration courtesy Smithsonian Institution

The ocean story is a balance of marine life and ocean systems that operate on a global scale. An Ocean Systems Gallery will feature NOAA’s Science On a Sphere, an animated globe on which dynamic images of Earth’s environmental processes can be displayed (from a 22,000 miles away perspective). A custom imagery piece will illustrate how the ocean changes (plate tectonics), is connected (global ocean circulation), interacts (ocean atmosphere processes), and produces (primary productivity). These narrated chapters can be updated as our knowledge base changes.

The hall will also be kept up-to-date through stations that allow visitors to access data and ocean-related news. They will see and hear about cutting edge research and learn about critical ocean-related issues. A ‘Human Connections’ brand that links human impact, benefits and stewardship are woven throughout the hall and interactive computer stations give visitors the opportunity to explore complex ocean issues such as managing marine fisheries and confronting global climate change. From monitoring stock conditions and catch, to personal choices on transportation and home energy use, visitors will be able to weigh in with their own choices and listen to responses from a variety of stakeholders. They will see first-hand how their choices may change the world around them. Another interactive highlight called Ocean Today Kiosk will use cutting edge software and touch-screen displays to offer highly dynamic, multi-media experiences. It will be updateable and diverse with current and foundational ocean topics e.g. recent discoveries, newsworthy ocean-related events and one-of-a-kind video technology. Five Coastal Ecosystem Learning Centers may carry the national feed from this Ocean Hall kiosk in kiosks in their own museums and aquaria, along with regional and local stories.

The tide will change in a 1,200 square foot gallery as it features a new topic each year. The opening theme is Going to Sea. Navigation – past and present; why throughout the ages mankind has gone to sea; and how the ocean has inspired e.g. poetry, literature. As the script says, “Sea voyages tell a mighty story,” and this area will feature historic and contemporary research stories including an 18^th century cruise by the vessel Albatross which gathered one of the greatest collections of marine organisms. The Albatross specimens formed the keystone of the Smithsonian’s research collections.

A very large female giant squid caught off the coast of northern Spain will be on display.

A 330+ lb. female giant squid caught off the coast of northern Spain will be on display. Photo courtesy Angel Guerra

Trilobites lived in the ancient ocean world

Trilobites will provide a glimpse into the ancient ocean world. Photo courtesy Smithsonian Institution

The story behind collections is a subtheme in the hall, why scientists collect things and how they are used. The museum has a world renowned collection of marine specimens – more than 33 million – both modern and fossil, as well as a vast archive of anthropology artifacts from which choice pieces will be displayed in the Ocean Hall. From prehistoric shark jaws to a once thought extinct fish, and Easter Island dance paddles to a sailor's valentine, visitors will see and learn about the Why? behind collections as they wander through the hall’s galleries. The largest specimens of all – two giant squids – will be stretched out in specially designed cases.

As visitors venture further into the hall they will reach the open ocean section where an Ocean Exploration Theater will feature a new History Channel production – a virtual submersible expedition from the ocean’s surface, through the midwater, to a deep ocean abyssal plain – that will play to audiences of about 50 people. A virtual water column will also be on display to highlight the open ocean’s zones and the life which lives there. Coral reef ecosystems are a highlight of the Shores to Shallows Gallery where a 1,500-gallon salt water aquarium will show visitors the amazing diversity of life which lives in and on coral reefs, how reefs form, what impacts them, and what is being and can be done to protect reefs. A Poles exhibit will illustrate that despite extremes of dark and cold, life still exists in the polar regions.

How Old is Life on Earth? The Journey Through Time gallery answers this question and delves into the evolution, explosion of life and extinctions which followed. Top predators, whale evolution, and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program will be featured. Visitors can also have their picture taken in front of prehistoric great white shark jaws or see 125 million year old deep sea sediment drilled from the floor of the Indian Ocean.

The Ocean Hall is a cornerstone of the Smithsonian's Ocean Initiative designed to increase public awareness of the ocean’s importance to all life. In 2008, the museum expects to receive seven million visitors and another 16 million virtual visitors on line, via the Ocean Web Portal which they are collaborating with NOAA on. The Ocean Hall spurs the questions of who cares for the ocean and why; demonstrates how the ocean works and its interconnectedness with other global systems; illustrates how life evolved in the ocean over billions of years; shows the amazing diversity of its habitats and life; and engages visitors in the methods and technologies used by ocean scientists. The exhibit will be kept current through the efforts and imaginations of those at the Smithsonian, in NOAA and at other ocean partners. NOAA employees have worked hand-in-hand with the Smithsonian team in brainstorming, imagining and providing data, software, story ideas, script review and scientific accuracy checks, computer animations, oceanographic equipment and mock-ups, more links to the ocean community, and NOAA science.

At the end of a visit to the Ocean Hall, we hope visitors will better understand the ocean and our human connections to it, and will know that all life depends on the ocean -- including theirs. What comes to your mind when you think about the ocean?