Encounter the Oceans in Times Square
In the heart of Times Square, one can now take a tour of the ocean, witness a battle between two giant squids, make eye contact with a sea lion and have stingrays swim around you, all without getting wet. That’s the promise, and one that is kept, by the National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey on 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, an exhibit that opened its doors in October 2017.
Entrance to Kelp Forest
It’s not a museum, exhibit, aquarium or virtual reality, but instead, it is an “immersive experience,” one that brings the oceans and all its inhabitants to us in such realistic images, you think you’ve stepped into the deep. It’s the ideal way to learn about our world without having to go seek out the creatures, catch and bring them across the world into realistic-looking but unnatural habitats.
Batch Room
On a recent morning, I along with about three to four school busses filled with students, made a visit to the Encounter. However, since the experience has staggered times, there was never a crowd in any one place, and it was well paced. We begin in an immense blue room as host, Cassy, explains what lies ahead, and reminds us to take a deep breath, and get ready to dive in. The doors open to reveal another huge blue room with screens all around us, and like magic, the ocean comes to life. We see enormous whales, tortoises, sharks, and schools of fish swimming in all directions, passing under our feet, gliding over our head.
Coral Reef at Night Interactive
Our trip would lead us across the bottom of the sea from the Solomon Islands off the coast of Australia to the waters off the west coast of North America – a whopping 6,000 miles. Along the way we would see and experience the beautiful coral reefs, the magical ability of fish to light up via bioluminescence, or the emission of light they use for hunting, mating and self-defense. From room to room, we’re brought into new sections of the ocean to experience the rarely seen Humboldt Squid, which can grow to 6 feet in length and has something like 40,000 teeth. An aggressive one, these guys will turn on their own species when agitated enough, and of course one did. We got to witness their swirling dance as two jumbo squids battled it out. It was more mesmerizing than frightening.
Sea Lion Interactive
In another room, we listened to the ocean’s cacophony of screeches, whistles and moans, as the sea creatures communicate with each other. Another room gave us the sense of moving through a kelp forest, in another we frolicked with a very realistic-looking sea lion, and witnessed the formation of a bait ball – when larger fish herd the little, tastier ones into a frenzied twirling ball, making it easier to grab big amounts of them than just gobbling one by one.
Lobby
The trip takes about an hour, although lingering is allowed, and we were never rushed along. It’s truly a wild notion that all this is going on under the surface of the ocean. We learn that scientists have only scratched the surface, so to speak, of the world’s oceans, with almost 95% of it still undiscovered. Also, who knew that about half of our oxygen comes from the oceans? The more we know about something, the more we will care about it. And the more we know what’s at stake, the more we will try to help. Use less plastic, recycle, and pick up trash at the beach were some of the examples given as we exited.
National Geographic’s Encounter: Ocean Odyssey has raised the bar on what they call, “entertainment with a purpose,” and didn’t spare any expense. They’ve utilized the creative visual effects team behind the Game of Thrones, and an award-winning producer and composer, David Kahne who collected thousands of underwater sounds from libraries around the world. If you go, prepare to be wowed.
Photos courtesy of National Geographic Ocean Encounter
Top photo: Interactive shallows
Located at 226 West 44th Street, the National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey is open daily at 10 a.m. For additional information, times and ticket prices, visit the website.
