New exhibition Unseen Oceans Opens March 21 at the California Academy of Sciences

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 17, 2025)—More than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans, and beneath the surface lies a hidden world. In Unseen Oceans, a new exhibition on view at the California Academy of Sciences from March 21 through Sept. 7, 2025, visitors will embark on a journey from the oceans’ sunlit surfaces to their inky depths, encountering mysterious deep sea creatures as well as the scientists and technologies that are revealing our blue planet as never before.

Highlights from Unseen Oceans, a traveling exhibition produced by the American Museum of Natural History, include:

• Glowing supersized models like larger-than-life plankton and a floor-to-ceiling array of biofluorescent fish and turtles.
• Fascinating deep dives into the special adaptations that enable unusual species to thrive in darkness and pressure.
• Fossil casts and specimens, from a giant squid beak to megalodon teeth.
• Projections of schooling fish that react to visitors’ movements.
• Awe-inspiring videos that bring guests face to face with life-sized blue whales, giant squid, and manta rays.

Visitors can hop in the driver’s seat of a submersible with a digital interactive game that lets them navigate around seamounts and make their own discoveries, or grab a photo in a partial replica of the Triton submersible. The exhibit also includes prototypes of robotics scientists are using for deep sea research, and features Academy scientists who are leveraging technology to better understand and regenerate ocean ecosystems amid greater threats, including climate change.

“Unseen Oceans provides an unparalleled opportunity to step into the rarified world of the deep sea and come face to face with the majestic and mysterious creatures that call this place home,” shares Aaron Smith, director of exhibitions at the California Academy of Sciences. “We’re excited to spotlight several of the Academy researchers who are working to protect and regenerate marine ecosystems across the world, with projects ranging from coral reproduction in our San Francisco Coral Regeneration Lab and in the wild reefs of Honduras, to 3D reef mapping and genomic analysis in Curaçao.”

Read on for details and highlights of the exhibition sections.

The Oceans’ Inhabitants, at All Scales

As you step into Unseen Oceans, a projection of blue waves underfoot sets the stage for our initial descent below the surface. In the sunlit zone of the upper few hundred feet of the ocean we find the organisms that sustain nearly all marine life: plankton. These tiny organisms drift with the currents and are vital to life on Earth.

In this section of the exhibition, visitors will encounter larger-than-life models of unusual and beautiful planktonic species and try to match the planktonic and adult forms of a variety of marine species in a “Find My Baby Picture” game. Phytoplankton, photosynthesizing microscopic organisms that include bacteria, algae, and protozoans, are the ocean’s primary energy producers. They rely on light to grow and are so numerous that their blooms can be seen from space. Feeding on the phytoplankton are small animals called zooplankton, including the larvae of familiar marine animals like the mighty bluefin tuna and ocean sunfish. Despite their small size, planktonic forms are remarkably diverse and the complexity of these extraordinary organisms is only beginning to be understood.

On the other end of the size spectrum, Earth’s oceans have been home to giant animals for hundreds of millions of years. Visitors will encounter fascinating fossils and casts from Earth’s past—from ammonites to megalodon teeth—and stand in awe of the immensity of the largest animals on our blue planet today as life-sized blue whales, giant squid, and manta rays swim by on an immersive180-degree screen. (Visitors interested in learning more about some of the prehistoric giants that thrived on land can head out to the Academy’s two outdoor gardens to view Dino Days, a limited exhibition that features 13 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs (through Sept. 1).

Despite their size, scientists knew surprisingly little about the lives of whales until about a decade ago. Moe Flannery, the Academy’s senior ornithology and mammalogy collections manager, is among the scientists around the world working to change that. Flannery partners with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network to respond to whale strandings on the Northern California coast. Through a necropsy, or animal autopsy, Flannery and her team uncover valuable clues not only about an animal’s cause of death but also about overall ocean health, data that helps inform conservation strategies.

Visitors to Unseen Oceans will learn how ocean scientists experiment and refine their research tools as they view the different versions of whale tags that have been developed over the years. The data recorded by the tags—including how fast and deep a whale dives and even the sounds that surround it—allow scientists to better understand whales’ feeding and migratory behavior and, in turn, support conservation efforts in increasingly crowded and urbanized waterways.

Illuminating Marine Mysteries with New Technologies

Sinking deeper into the ocean, daylight fades, most colors disappear, and life is bathed in blue. But diving at night with specially-designed lights and cameras, scientists from the American Museum of Natural History have discovered that a wide variety of fishes and other marine animals are fluorescent, glowing in startling shades of red, orange, and green when illuminated with high-energy blue light. The researchers’ investigations into this phenomenon began with a serendipitous observation of a fluorescent eel in the Cayman Islands, after which they embarked on a high-tech, global search for other species that exhibit this remarkable trait. Unlike bioluminescence, which is light made by an organism through a chemical reaction, biofluorescence involves the absorption and re-emission of light by special molecules in an animal’s body. Visitors to Unseen Oceans will encounter a floor-to-ceiling array of model fishes and turtles that biofluoresce as they would in life, learn about the potential functions of fluorescence in the ocean, and see how a biofluorescent fish looks under different light and through the lens of specialized underwater cameras.

A little closer to the surface, Academy Curator of Ichthyology Luiz Rocha, Senior Director of Steinhart Aquarium Bart Shepherd, and the Academy’s scientific diving team are leading the charge to explore mesophotic reefs, a narrow band about 100-500 feet below the ocean’s surface. Visitors are encouraged to visit the Twilight Zone: Deep Reefs Revealed exhibit in the Academy’s Steinhart Aquarium to see some of the live dazzling marine life inhabiting mesophotic reefs, including the rainbow sherbet-colored Rose Veiled Fairy Wrasse, glowing corals, flashlight fish, and more.

Technology Sheds Light on the Wonders of the Ocean Floor

At the bottom of our descent in Unseen Oceans, we reach the ocean floor, another world entirely. Only about 10 to 15 percent of the seafloor has been mapped with accuracy. We know the surface of Mars much better than the submerged landscapes of our own planet. But today, with the use of sound waves, radar, and lasers, scientists are beginning to construct extraordinarily detailed images of these environments. A gallery in Unseen Oceans features a scientifically accurate re-creation of an undersea landscape from the Galápagos seamount chain as well as models of some of the hidden parts of our ocean planet—including the Hudson Canyon, a spectacular underwater feature located 100 miles from New York City. Guests will also glimpse an animated three-dimensional map of the world’s deep, slow-moving current system known as the Global Conveyor Belt, an interactive projection table where visitors experience a hands-on lesson about ocean topography as they create trenches and build islands, and hydrothermal vents from the Academy’s Geology collections.

Modern Submersibles Enable Science at New Depths

When only human eyes will do, scientists and their submersible pilots brave darkness and crushing pressure to observe the amazing life forms that inhabit the deep. Modern submersibles are a far cry from the vehicles used for deep ocean exploration in the early 20th century. Unlike the ocean scientists before them who contended with noisy, bright, and clunky submersibles, scientists today are able to delicately carry out research without scaring away or harming the organisms they seek to study. Visitors will be able to see a prototype of the latest soft robotics being developed by engineers at top universities to help marine biologists sample and analyze inhabitants of the deep sea with minimal damage. A partial replica of a Triton submersible is also on view, providing a great photo opportunity. Visitors can experience the thrill of marine exploration at digital interactive submersible game stations, where they can use a joystick to steer a virtual submersible, navigate around seamounts, and make discoveries of their own.

Preserving the Future of our Ocean Planet

Although there are many urgent threats to the oceans’ vital abundance, including overfishing, habitat degradation, and warming waters, it’s not too late to protect these vital ecosystems for the future. Guests will learn about some of the Academy’s many marine programs and partnerships that are helping regenerate oceans, from working with Filipino colleagues to designate the Verde Island Passage–some of the most biodiverse waters on Earth–as a protected Hope Spot, to engaging people right here in the Bay Area with their local nature through community science programs like tidepool bioblitzes. As they exit the exhibition, guests can walk among projections of schooling fish who flitter and dart away as footsteps approach.