Sant Ocean Hall

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Dive into a World Hidden Beneath the Surface

Explore the ocean from the shore and sunlit shallows all the way down to the darkness of the ocean floor.

Discover the amazing biodiversity of life in the water—from a life-model of a real North Atlantic right whale to the microscopic plankton that these whales feast upon, and all the unfamiliar organisms in between.

On this fascinating dive, you’ll also travel through time, from the origins of the ocean 3.8 billion years ago to the challenges and exciting scientific opportunities the ocean presents today.

Exhibit Highlights

four people standing on one side of large shark mouth — Take a selfie in the massive, fossilized jaws of C. megalodon, a gigantic shark that prowled the ocean between 2.6 and 23 million years ago.

photo of a girl in pink looking at the living coral reef exhibit — Find “Nemo” and “Dori,” along with a carpet anemone, a snapping shrimp, or any of the 21 other species of coral and fish in the living Indo-Pacific coral reef.

Photo of visitors sitting around a giant suspended globe of planet earth — Learn how ocean currents and weather patterns affect climate around the globe in an innovative video presentation on a six-foot-diameter sphere.

a hanging skeleton of a basilosaurus — Look up! Explore the skeletons of three ancient whale relatives—including one that still had legs—early pioneers of the ocean that lived more than 40 million years ago.

a giant squid specimen — Get up close to a preserved 25-foot-long giant squid - one of the ocean's most elusive predators.

a photo of exhibit graphics and two face-to-face interactive screens — Take our head-to-head quiz to find your “fish face.”

Take the virtual tour

Walk through the Sant Ocean Hall from home.

Sant Ocean Hall Virtual Tour

Online Resources

Visit the Sant Ocean Hall from the comfort of your own home through our Virtual Tour.
Step into the Ocean Portal, a website offering a deeper dive into the ocean subjects found in the Sant Ocean Hall.
Explore Ocean Portal resources for educators and learners.
Search more than 300 teacher resources.
Watch archived Smithsonian Science How webinars.
Read or listen to a visual description tour for our blind and low-vision visitors.
Dive deeper into the Smithsonian's Marine Conservation Program.

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