The Ocean is important to all life, including yours. Join us.
Welcome to the Ocean Portal – a unique, interactive online experience that inspires awareness, understanding, and stewardship of the world’s Ocean, developed by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and more than 20 collaborating organizations.
You are among the first wave of visitors to the Portal, an experience which we hope will empower you to shape and share your personal Ocean experiences, knowledge, and perspectives.
The input you provide through feedback modules and comment boxes will help us to shape future Ocean Portal content and functionality. Like the Ocean, which is made of millions of marine species, your comments, questions, and clicks will help to bring the Portal closer to the vastness and variety of the Ocean itself.
Collaborator Contributions
Sharks have a long and impressive lineage. Ancient sharks were cruising the ocean 400 million years ago--long before dinosaurs roamed on land. Relatives of the great white like the giant megatooth evolved more than 20 million years ago. Meet some of the other imposing top predators from ages past.
It’s not just comparisons to other traumatic events that can help put the danger of shark attacks in perspective. Things we encounter in everyday life and common activities often pose much greater danger than sharks. For example, you are much more likely to be killed by a car or bicycle accident, a fall, a mishap with fireworks, or even a bad case of the flu than by a shark attack.
Every year, humans kill an estimated 100 million sharks. The threats we pose are many. By-catch: the accidental killing of sharks in fishing gear intended for other species. Illegal poaching and hunting: selling shark fins for soup and sportfishing for shark-jaw trophies. Nets: placed along coastlines to keep sharks away from beaches.
Karen Knee, Postdoctoral fellow, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Woods Hole scientists operate an ROV to sample the oil spewing from the ruptured Macondo Well. After the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) administrators and investigators were among those whom BP and the federal government called for advice and assistance.
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, opening up a well that pumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the ocean. It was the largest spill in U.S.
Dive into the Gulf of Mexico without getting wet! The Smithsonian has recently uploaded some of its marine collections from that region onto Google Earth's Ocean Layer. Now you can go where our scientists have traveled and discover the biodiversity that exists beneath the water's surface. Want to see Google Earth's ocean layer in action?
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) keeps track of earthquake locations and magnitudes, accessible on the USGS website. Modern recording equipment has been in use since about 1900. While this may seem like long ago, this only provides a VERY short reliable earthquake record. This graph shows the magnitude of earthquakes (looking only at those greater than M = 5) versus time since 1970.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) keeps track of earthquake locations and magnitudes, accessible on the USGS website. Modern recording equipment has been in use since about 1900. While this may seem like long ago, this only provides a VERY short reliable earthquake record. This graph shows the magnitude of earthquakes (looking only at those greater than M = 5) versus time since 1900.
Smithsonian Institution
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