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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

This aptly named fish has two long fangs.

Fangtooth Fish

This aptly named fish (Anoplogaster cornuta) has long, menacing fangs, but the adult fish is small, reaching only about 6 inches (17 cm) in length. It's teeth are the largest in the ocean in proportion to body size, and are so long that the fangtooth has an adaptation so that it can close its mouth! Special pouches on the roof of its mouth prevent the teeth from piercing the fish's brain when its mouth is closed.

The suckers of this red octopod flash on and off.

Glowing Sucker Octopus

This red octopod (Stauroteuthis syrtensis) shines in a novel way. Suckers stretching in a single row down each arm flash on and off. The glowing-sucker octopod drifts through deep waters off the eastern United States—down to 2,500 meters (8,200 feet)—and grows up to 50 cm (18 inches) long.

This crab was collected on a NOAA/MAR-ECO cruise to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in 2009.

Spiny Deepsea King Crab

This crab (Neolithodes sp.) was collected on a NOAA/MAR-ECO cruise to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the summer of 2009. Its red color provides camouflage and protection from predators. Red wavelengths are strongly absorbed by water, so red light does not normally reach the midwater ocean zone. Most deep-sea animals have lost the ability to see red.

Hybrid vehicles combine the best features of ROVs and AUVs.

Hybrid Underwater Vehicle

A hybrid underwater vehicle combines the best features of an ROV (remotely operated vehicle), which is connected to a ship in order to transmit data and video feeds, and an AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle), which can swim freely and cover a larger area. Learn more about Nereus, a hybrid underwater vehicle maintained by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The OP Community Manager

Christine, the Ocean Portal Community Manager wants to hear from you. Please leave a comment, send us an email, or use the feedback module to let her know what you think of the site.

The New England Seamount Chain is the longest in the North Atlantic Ocean and includes peaks of more than 30 extinct volcanoes.

Map of New England Seamount Chain

The New England Seamount Chain is the longest in the North Atlantic Ocean. It includes more than 30 major volcanic peaks. Seamounts provide a solid surface for corals and other marine animals to cling to.

A rendering of an underwater marine scene depicting life ~145-65 million years ago, when rudist clams were the major reef builders.

Carbonate Reef (Cretaceous Period: 145 - 65 Million Years Ago)

This illustration shows the edge of a warm inland sea during the Cretaceous Period, heyday of the dinosaurs. Constantly shifting sediment supported new groups of organisms, including rudist clams—major molluscan reef builders. Various organisms have taken a turn as the dominant tropical reef builders. Visit a tropical reef today and you’ll see coral. But if you visited during the Cretaceous Period, you might have seen reefs built by mollusks: rudist clams.

Photograph from above of two brown nudibranchs with white-ringed deep purple spots, crawling in a line.

Leopard Sea Slugs Crawl Together

Two brown and purple nudibranchs (Risbecia tryoni), crawling in tandem on a surface encrusted with pink-colored coralline algae. These "sea slugs" live in the tropical Western Pacific Ocean. You can learn more about coral reef ecosystems by exploring our Coral Reefs featured story.

Oil’s Impact on Marine Invertebrates

In the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, what is the effect of oil on invertebrates like jellyfish, clams, crabs, sea stars, and plankton? The scope of the damage is more easily observed among birds and large animals, but Dr. Chris Mah, an invertebrate zoologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, suggests that what we don’t see may be more widespread and devastating.