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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

Celebrate World Ocean Day

June 8th is World Ocean Day- a great time to celebrate all that the ocean does for us and focus on keeping it healthy for future generations. Visit the Ocean Portal's Find Your Blue page to start learning today about how your personal actions affect the ocean and how you can make make small changes to your daily routine to help protect it.

Science in a Time of Crisis: Assessing the Impacts

Part 6 of a 6-part series describing WHOI's efforts to understand the scope and impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "Assessing the Impacts" describes a range of work by WHOI scientists in the months after the spill.

Science in a Time of Crisis: Tracking the Currents

Part 5 of a 6-part series describing Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's efforts to understand the scope and impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "Tracking the Currents" follows work by WHOI's Breck Owens to deploy an autonomous underwater glider to map and monitor currents in the Gulf immediately after the spill and throughout the summer.

Science in a Time of Crisis: Searching for the Plume

Part 4 of a 6-part series describing Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's efforts to understand the scope and impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "Searching for the Plume" describes a research cruised aboard the R/V Endeavor on which WHOI scientists found and mapped a plume of hydrocarbons beneath the surface of the Gulf using the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry fitted with a compact mass spectrometer.

Science in a Time of Crisis: Sampling the Source

Part 3 of a 6-part series describing Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's efforts to understand the scope and impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "Sampling the Source" describes successful efforts by WHOI scientists to obtain the only samples of oil and gas directly from the broken riser pipe and blow-out preventer and return them to the surface at pressure. Watch part four here.

Science in a Time of Crisis: How Much Oil?

Part 2 of a 6-part series describing Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's (WHOI) efforts to understand the scope and impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "How Much Oil?" describes efforts by WHOI scientists to provide the most accurate estimates of the amount of oil and gas that was entering the water from the ruptured well in the Gulf. Watch part three here.

Science in a Time of Crisis: Oil Spill Pioneers

Part 1 of a 6-part series describing WHOI's efforts to understand the scope and impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  "Oil Spill Pioneers" describes WHOI's four decades of experience studying oil spills, dating back to the 1969 Cape Code oil spill in Falmouth, MA. Watch part two here. 

Lecture: One Year After the Gulf Oil Spill

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. history. In this presentation given at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History on April 19, 2011, experts discuss oil spill remediation, wildlife rescue, and the health of the Gulf of Mexico and its fisheries one year after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill began:

Dr. Nancy Rabalais: Troubled Waters in the Gulf of Mexico

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill brought the world’s attention to the Gulf of Mexico and raised awareness of the region’s chronic loss of wetlands and the massive dead zone caused by excess nutrients from the Mississippi River. In this presentation, Dr. Nancy Rabalais outlines the challenges to develop and implement large-scale restoration plans for the Gulf Coast ecosystem.

Climate Change Education in Coastal Carolina

What is climate change, and how is it affecting coastal Carolina?  That is the question that a group teens from Isaac Bear Early College High School set out to answer for their Third National Student Summit on the Ocean & Coasts project.