Sant Ocean Hall - A Right Whale Overhead
A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.
The Sant Ocean Hall, on the first floor, is the largest exhibit in the museum, covering about 23,000 square feet. It opened in September 2008.
Hanging overhead is a 45-foot model of Phoenix, a real North Atlantic right whale that scientists have followed since her birth in 1987. Right whales are among the most endangered whales in the world, and Phoenix's life story, including her entanglement in fishing gear and her calves, is told around the hall.
In the cases below, look for a giant squid about 24 feet long preserved in fluid, and a coelacanth, a deep-sea fish once thought to have died out with the dinosaurs until one was caught off South Africa in 1938. There is also a live coral reef tank.
Next, walk to the Hall of Fossils for the T. rex.
More on Wikipedia: North Atlantic right whale · Coelacanth
Stops on this tour
- Washington Monument
- National Museum of African American History and Cu
- National Museum of American History
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- National Gallery of Art
- United States Capitol
- United States Botanic Garden
- National Museum of the American Indian
- National Air and Space Museum
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- The Smithsonian Institution Building - The Castle
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Jefferson Memorial
- World War II Memorial
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- White House Ellipse
- White House
- Lafayette Square