World Ocean Day 2025

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Celebrate World Ocean Day with the National Museum of Natural History on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Join ocean scientists, researchers, and educators in the Sant Ocean Hall for an exciting series of interactive experiences celebrating our blue planet and exploring all the ways science and community action can connect us to our waterways.

Events on June 5

Play Date: Ocean Cleaners Story Time with Susan Stockdale

A montage of two images: Portrait of a woman with short, reddish-brown hair and wearing a gray jacket and a colorful scarf. Also an image of an illustrated children's book cover, text reads Don't Eat the Cleaners -- Tiny Fish with a Big Job, over a large orange-red fish with its mouth open and three small fish swimming inside. — Images courtesy of Susan Stockdale

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: Sant Ocean Hall’s Explorer Theater
For families
Join us for a special edition of Play Date featuring a story time with special guest author and artist, Susan Stockdale! We are so excited to welcome Susan Stockdale to read and demonstrate how she created her new picture book, "Don’t Eat the Cleaners!", the ninth book she has written and illustrated with the research assistance of our very own museum’s scientists. Children will learn how ocean animals visit “cleaning stations” at coral reefs around the world. While there, tiny but mighty cleaner fish and shrimp remove their pesky parasites in return for a tasty meal.

Scheduled Reading Times with Susan Stockdale:

10:15 a.m.
11:00 a.m.

Following the readings, Susan Stockdale will be available for book signing in the Explorer Theater. Please note that books will be available for purchase and are not included with attendance to the program.

Conversation Stations with Scientists

Five people stand around a cart in an exhibit hall. A sign on the cart says National Museum of Natural History. A laptop and other displays are on top of the cart. A man stands behind the cart, holding something in one hand and pointing to it with the other. Behind the cart is an exhibit display case with the words Save the Vaquita Porpoise? Two small, gray porpoises are in the case. — Photo by Phillip R. Lee, Smithsonian Institution

Times: 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Location: Sant Ocean Hall
For everyone
Come meet some of the amazing people who play a role in stewarding our ocean through research and conservation. Stations will be facilitated by:

The Museum's Department of Invertebrate Zoology: From organisms that live around hydrothermal vents to jellyfish who span the sea, come explore the wonderful worlds of ocean animals that all have one thing in common: no backbone!
The Museum's Department of Vertebrate Zoology: From whales and dolphins to turtles and snakes, come learn more about these amazing animals.
The Museum’s Department of Botany: Come to learn more about how algae and seaweed play a large role in creating an important ecosystem in the middle of the ocean.
The Museum’s Department of Paleobiology: The ocean has changed many times since the beginning of our planet. Learn from our scientists how mass extinctions are a major driver of ecosystem change in the oceans.
The Museum’s Department of Mineral Sciences: There are many seafloor volcanoes that are erupting. This creates a new ocean floor. Learn more about these volcanoes and compare samples from the seafloor to continental land.
The Museum’s Department of Anthropology: Humans have always been connected to the ocean. Learn more about this connection and how we can keep them healthy.
The Museum’s Library: Join us to learn from our library’s resources and research pathways on invasive marine species and how they impact biodiversity and non-native ecosystems.
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center: Learn more about Chesapeake Bay and how an oyster reef is more than a pile of shells, it provides valuable ecosystem services for many different animals.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: NOAA will be joining us to discuss some of the roles they play in ocean research and the conservation of key habitats. Find them throughout the Ocean Hall covering topics like ocean careers, remotely operated submarines, and more!

Conversation Stations Gallery

A man wearing a turquoise face mask and gloves holds a long, half-cylinder of rock next to a computer monitor and in front of several trays of similar rocks. — Kuan-Yu Lin (a postdoctoral fellow at NMNH) holding an intact serpentinite drill core recovered from beneath the "Lost City" vent site in the Atlantic Ocean during the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 399. Photo by Lesley Anderson

Three rows of rock samples in trays, which are separated by long rulers. — The 1,268 meters of drilled samples provide clues to the development of the "Lost City" springs, which are hypothesized to be analogous to the environments that cultivated the earliest forms of life on Earth. Photo by Sarah Treadwell

Color illustration of an underwater scene in an ancient ocean, featuring swimming ammonites, a long, thin fish, and crescent-shaped piles of sand on the seafloor. — Artist's rendering of what the Cretaceous ocean looked like in a shallow inland sea setting. Smithsonian Institution image

Underwater view of an oyster reef with a blue crab nearby. The picture is mustard yellow and there are clumps of oyster shells on the bottom with things growing on them. — An underwater image of an oyster reef with other fish and a blue crab present. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center image

Two women sitting behind a table that is covered with pamphlets, magazines, and oyster shells. A sign on the table says Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Behind the table is a house. — Emi McGeady (left) and Emily Anderson from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). SERC image

A double-outrigger canoe in a body of water with piers on the left shore and tree-covered mountains in the distance. The sky is full of dark clouds. — A traditional fishing canoe from Warsambin village, Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Photo by Benjamin Utting

Color illustration of a red lionfish, a red-and-white striped fish with 12 spines sticking up out of its back. It has large, oval-shaped fins and tail. — Red lionfish (Pterois volitans). Cuvier, Georges, et al. Histoire naturelle des poissons. Chez F. G. Levrault; [etc., etc.], 1828, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7111406.

Color illustrations of green crabs, male, female, and their antennae and pedipalps. — European green crab (Carcinus maenas). Leach, William Elford, et al. Malacostraca Podophthalmata Britanniae, or, Descriptions of Such British Species of the Linnean Genus Cancer as Have Their Eyes Elevated on Footstalks. J. Sowerby, 1815, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12003015.

Science on a Sphere

Eight people in an exhibit hall looking up at a large globe suspended from the ceiling. The globe displays a map of the world in green, brown, yellow, and white. A man stands near the globe, pointing at it while talking. — Photo by Phillip R. Lee, Smithsonian Institution

Times: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Sant Ocean Hall’s Science on a Sphere
For everyone
Explore stunning interactive visualizations projected on the Sant Ocean Hall’s giant globe and talk with NOAA experts about our changing planet and how we can help.

Penguin Puppet Encounter

Four black-and-white penguin puppets standing on concrete with plants behind them. — Image courtesy of Alex and Olmsted

Time: 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Location: Roaming around the Sant Ocean Hall
For everyone
Venture into the Sant Ocean Hall to witness a march of penguin puppets. Curious visitors will be engaged in up-close encounters with the puppets and their handlers, the award-winning performance duo Alex and Olmsted. Equipped with penguin facts galore, Alex, Olmsted, and their feathered friends will inspire a spirit of play and imagination in all ages.

Deep Gulf Exploration and Restoration

About 20 people sitting on benches in a small theater, looking at a large movie screen displaying a blue, yellow, and white ocean worm, with what look like two antennae. The worm has a dozen pairs of appendages sticking out from its oval-shaped body. Two people stand in front of the screen, one pointing up and holding a microphone. — Photo by Phillip R. Lee, Smithsonian Institution

Times: 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Sant Ocean Hall's Explorer Theater
For everyone
Come learn from Smithsonian scientists and NOAA experts who are supporting efforts to restore coral and sponge habitats on the deep seafloor! In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacted over 770 square miles of deep seafloor habitat off the coast of Louisiana. Now, scientists from the museum’s Invertebrate Zoology department are working with the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities projects to help restore and protect seafloor habitats by providing taxonomic and ecological expertise about the animals that make up these communities. Stop by the Sant Ocean Hall Explorer Theater to explore the corals, sponges, and other invertebrates that live in these important habitats and learn more about the different projects making restoration possible!

Related Resources

Check out these ocean articles, videos, tours, and collections at your own pace!

Articles and Websites

Videos

NOAA's Ocean Today
NOAA's Marine Debris Program: Trash Talk
Jellyfish Live! (National Museum of Natural History)
Constructing a Coral Reef (National Museum of Natural History)

Virtual Tours and Collections

(Credit for image at top of page: Teodor Drobota on Unsplash.)

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