Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Pacific Ocean

A view of one of Tuvalu's islands captured in June 2023. The nation is highly threatened by climate change.

More Than One-Third of Tuvalu’s Population Has Applied for a ‘Climate Visa’ to Relocate to Australia

The world-first climate visa agreement will grant permanent residency status to 280 Tuvaluans per year as the island nation grapples with sea-level rise

Two killer whales "allokelping" with a kelp stem between them

These Killer Whales Make Tools From Kelp to Massage Each Other in a Newly Discovered Grooming Behavior

Dubbed “allokelping,” it might be a unique cultural phenomenon that’s as endangered as the orca population itself

A male sea spider, preserved for imaging under a microscope, carries egg sacs after mating with two different females.

Scientists Discover First Known Sea Spider Species That ‘Eat’ Methane With the Help of Bacteria

The research offers new insights on interactions between creatures on the mysterious seafloor and sheds light on the methane cycle

Geoscientist Martin Köhler stands in front of Maka Lahi, which measures 46 feet by 39 feet by 22 feet—about the same size as a two-story house.

A 164-Foot Tsunami Pushed This Enormous Boulder Atop a Cliff in Tonga 7,000 Years Ago

The hulking rock, called Maka Lahi, is the size of a two-story house and sits on a 120-foot-tall cliff, covered in vegetation

None

There's More to That

The Stunning Search for the Remains of Fallen WWII Airmen

After three crewmen were swallowed up by the Pacific at the end of World War II, a modern-day rescue effort went to find them

A photogrammetric reconstruction of the submarine USS F-1, showing the conning tower and collision damage that caused the boat to sink

New Research

See a Lost U.S. Navy Submarine, Sunk During a World War I Test Run, in Digital Detail

Researchers descended to the wreck in underwater vehicles to collect data for 3-D models

Before the eruption, scientists saw a wide variety of ocean life around the Tica hydrothermal vent.

Scientists Stumbled Upon an Active Volcanic Eruption in a Mid-Ocean Ridge for the First Time Ever

From a research submersible, scientists saw hardened lava, dead tube worms and orange flashes from an eruption in the East Pacific Rise

During the squid run, tens of thousands of opalescent squids (Doryteuthis opalescens) gather together.

In Order to Unravel the Many Mysteries of Squids, Scientists Dive Into Their Mating Frenzies

Marine biologists hope to find out more about a creature that is vital to a healthy ecosystem and the state’s fishery

Chinese mitten crabs had never been found in the Pacific Northwest, until now.

Invasive Crab With Furry, Mitten-Like Claws Detected for the First Time in the Pacific Northwest

A commercial fisherman nabbed a large male Chinese mitten crab in the lower Columbia River late last month, putting biologists on high alert

Birds glide above the forests that surround Anacapa Island, California.

What Free Diving in a Kelp Forest Taught Me About an Overlooked but Incredibly Valuable Ecosystem

A photographer shares the epiphanies she has had while chronicling underwater jungles off the California coast

Using a remotely operated underwater vehicle, researchers discovered an automobile in one of the USS Yorktown's hangars. The car might have been used by one of the aircraft carrier's high-ranking officers.

Cool Finds

Why Was a 1940s Car Discovered in the Wreck of an American Naval Ship That Sank During World War II?

The mysterious automobile was found in a hangar on the USS “Yorktown,” which has been resting on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean since 1942

A female Guam kingfisher (left) and a male (right) perch on a branch on Palmyra Atoll.

Biologists Rejoice as Extremely Rare Guam Kingfishers Lay Their First Wild Eggs in Nearly 40 Years

The brightly colored birds are extinct in the wild, having disappeared from their native Guam in 1988 due to the introduction of the invasive brown tree snake. But now, they’re starting to make a comeback on Palmyra Atoll

Volunteers with the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute in Santa Barbara, California, rescue a sick sea lion that's likely suffering from domoic acid poisoning.

Sea Lion Bites Surfer Amid One of the Worst Outbreaks of Domoic Acid Poisoning That California Wildlife Rescuers Can Remember

Sea lions, dolphins and birds are sick and dying because of a toxic algae bloom in Southern California—and animal care organizations are overwhelmed by the scale

"Mr. Blobby" is a blobfish discovered in 2003 off the coast of New Zealand. The preserved specimen is now housed at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

Voters Crown the ‘World’s Ugliest Animal’ as New Zealand’s Fish of the Year

The blobfish is specially adapted to life in the deep ocean, but it looks like a shapeless blob when brought to the surface. It beat out the other candidates with its “unconventional beauty”

Nikau Dix holds a carved waka piece he found in the creek.

Cool Finds

A Fisherman and His Son Noticed Strange Pieces of Wood on a Beach. They Turned Out to Be Fragments of a Polynesian Canoe

The boat, known as a waka, was unearthed in the Chatham Islands. Researchers say it could be one of the most significant discoveries of its kind

Wisdom the Laysan albatross was banded with a red tag reading Z333 in 1956. She is now raising a newborn chick at the age of at least 74.

See the Adorable Video of Wisdom, the World’s Oldest Wild Bird, Tending to Her New Chick at Age 74

First banded in 1956, the Laysan albatross has become a mother once again at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

Weighing up to 1,100 pounds, Risso's dolphins live throughout the world's temperate and tropical oceans.

See a Rare ‘Super Pod’ of More Than 1,500 Risso’s Dolphins Spotted off the Coast of California

Whale-watching tour operators encountered the mass gathering of cetaceans while looking for migrating gray whales

View of the S.S. Pacific anchored near Fort Tongass in Alaska in 1868

Hundreds Died When This Steamship Sank in the Pacific Northwest in 1875 With Gold Worth Millions On Board

A century and a half later, the sinking of the S.S. Pacific remains one of the deadliest maritime disasters in the region’s history

Reef sharks are abundant in the new marine proteted area.

A New Marine Protected Area in the Marshall Islands Is Brimming With Life, Like a ‘Time Machine’ to Oceans Long Ago

The waters around two remote atolls in the central Pacific Ocean—spanning 18,500 square miles—are now protected from fishing

Parts of the deep Pacific Ocean are covered in metallic lumps known as polymetallic nodules. A study published last year suggested they produce oxygen without sunlight.

Scientists Who Found Mysterious ‘Dark Oxygen’ on the Ocean Floor Plan a New Expedition, Hoping to Settle Disputes

Last year, the team made headlines when it published a paper describing how metal lumps at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean seemed to produce oxygen without sunlight

Page 3 of 17