Tagging and Tracking Animals

A young leatherback turtle moves across the sand.

Celebrating marine moms for mother's day.

We honor mothers above waves and below

Nick Pyenson excavating toothed whale fossils

FEATURE STORY

Where have all the reef sharks gone?

FEATURE STORY

Oil Spill Two Years Later

Oily seaweed in the Gulf of Mexico

Amazing Ocean Mobile App

Screen shots from the new Amazing Ocean mobile app

Smithsonian Scientists Describe a New Fossil Whale, Bohaskaia monodontoides

An illustration of an extinct fossil whale, Bohaskaia monodontoides, that was recently named by scientists

X-Ray Vision: Fish Inside Out, a Smithsonian Exhibit of Fish X-Rays

An image gallery of fish X-rays

Multispecies Communities of Seacows

An illustration of an extinct multispecies community of dugongs or seacows

The Perfect Underwater Photo

A wrought iron butterflyfish being cleaned by a small wrasse in the waters of Japan's Ogasawara Islands.

Latest From The Blog

Emily Frost - May 16, 2012

Giant Pacific Manta Ray, Roca Partida Sea Mount, Revillagigedos Islands, Mexico
How do we know where ocean animals swim day and night? Scientists are getting snapshots into the daily lives of whales, sharks, and even...

Nicholas D. Pyenson - May 11, 2012

A researcher holds an arm bone from a "toothed" mysticete whale from Vancouver Island.
Editor's note: Read Nick's first blog post about "toothed" baleen whales to see what their team is excavating on Vancouver Island.  

Nicholas D. Pyenson - May 7, 2012

A Smithsonian scientist points to an ancient whale fossil
The whales that we see in today's world can broadly be split into two groups: those with teeth (odontocetes), and those that have baleen (...

Hannah Waters - Apr 27, 2012

<p>Large numbers of grey reef sharks were observed at Jarvis Island, an uninhabited Pacific island, during the 2010 Pacific RAMP expedition of the NOAA Ship <em>Hi'ialakai</em>.</p>
Reef sharks rarely get any love. These sharks, comprising several species, loiter around coral reefs, snacking on small fish, squids and...

For Eductors

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‘For Educators’ on the left side of the page. There you will find lesson plans, activities, and resources related to the page topic.

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Today's Featured Content

An underwater photo of Southern Bluefin Tuna swimming above a fish farm net.
Ian Gordon / Auscape International

Largely due to overfishing, the Southern Bluefin Tuna is listed as "critically endangered." If its population continues to decline, the species faces the possibility of extinction. It's not alone. Scientists classified the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna as "endangered" and Bigeye Tuna as "vulnerable." See more endangered species on our ...