Unseen Oceans takes visitors on a journey from the oceans’ sunlit surfaces to their inky depths as they discover our blue planet as never before. Visitors join scientists in their fieldwork to discover creatures living at previously unseen ocean layers.
Visitors explore circular, media-rich galleries showcasing marine environments and introducing new methods to explore the oceans. How do blue whales spend their day? What’s going on in the deep waters surrounding Hawai`i? Unseen Oceans answers these questions and explores other lines of inquiry that ocean researchers have only recently uncovered.
Visitors are welcomed with a familiar sight: a projection of waves lapping at their feet and a vista of the water’s surface. To start, visitors encounter larger-than-life models of beautiful planktonic species, view tiny organisms at interactive microscope stations, and try to match the planktonic and adult forms of a variety of marine species in a “Find My Baby Picture” game. In addition, visitors encounter fossils from Earth’s past and stand in awe of the immensity of the animals that inhabit our blue planet today at a 180-degree, high-resolution screen where animations of ocean life swim by visitors at true-to-life scales. Before exiting, visitors experience marine exploration at interactive submersible stations, where they take the joystick of a virtual submersible, navigate around seamounts, and make discoveries of their own.