New Ocean Hall Offers Deeper Sense of the Sea

"But unlike that George W., I have not had that kind of luck before."

[Laughter.]

The ocean's current situation is hardly a laughing matter. Coral reefs are being bleached by global warming. Nitrogen runoff has led to vast dead zones. Fish are being overharvested, and computer models show that some major fisheries will be nearly wiped out by the middle of this century. The recent proliferation of jellyfish is akin to cockroaches taking over the land. Scientists warn that the ocean is becoming a realm of "slime."

So for all the "Wow!" factor in the Ocean Hall, does it do justice to the environmental disasters unfolding around the planet?

After several controversies in the 1990s, the Smithsonian in recent years has tended to tip-toe around politically contentious issues. A temporary exhibit on the Arctic in 2006 proved to be an embarrassment, discussing the pole's melting with only a passing mention that human greenhouse gas emissions are a cause. The American Petroleum Institute initially offered $5 million to help create the new Ocean Hall, but that generated such controversy that last fall the institute rescinded the offer.

Samper says he tried to ensure that the driving forces of change in the ocean, from global warming to overexploitation of resources, are represented in the hall. They don't slam the visitor in the face, but they're there if you poke around. It's not all feel-good stuff by any means: Kids checking out the pictures of Phoenix will see a photograph of her dead mother, killed in a collision with a ship.

"I don't think the hall by itself will do the problems justice," Samper says. He hopes people will check out the hall's Web site for more information. The big goal here, he says, is to hook people, because the Ocean Hall reveals a world most of them have never seen.

We are, indeed, terrestrial creatures, naturally biased toward the land, the atmosphere, things that run and things that fly. As Samper puts it, "Most people's connection with the ocean stops at the beach." In fact very few people -- even scientists -- have seen the deepest parts of the sea. The hydrothermal vents that teem with strange crabs and worms were discovered only a couple of decades ago. New species are still being discovered in the lightless abyss of the sea.

The ocean's deepest point is about seven miles down. The hall's project manager, Elizabeth Musteen, says only 10 human beings have ever been deeper than 3 1/2 miles below the surface -- which means that the ocean trenches have been explored by fewer people than have explored the moon.

Bush talked Friday about "the oceans," but the Smithsonian may yet convince the public that the word should be singular. This is not the Oceans Hall: It's the Ocean Hall -- because it's all connected, a single global ecosystem divided into basins.

Perhaps the most profound words in the hall are those that greet the visitor at the entrance:

"This is an ocean planet."