Permanent exhibition

The deep sea is the largest habitat on Earth – around 50 percent of the Earth’s total surface area lies below a depth of 1,000 meters in the ocean. Despite the extreme living conditions, the deep sea is home to organisms that have adapted in many different ways: from giant squids and pelican eels to blue-green glowing brittle stars and “alarm jellyfish.” This unknown universe is magical, eerie, and fascinating. The new exhibition rooms allow visitors to experience the deep sea with all their senses.

With the help of autonomous vehicles and robots, scientists are exploring the virtually unknown deep sea and bringing amazing discoveries to light. Manned deep-sea dives are expensive, complex, and dangerous. That is why deep-sea researchers usually use unmanned devices. These devices are called “remotely operated vehicles” (ROVs) or “autonomous underwater vehicles” (AUVs). A new themed room introduces marine research and marine technology. In the exhibition, visitors can become pilots of a deep-sea robot themselves and embark on a virtual dive into the depths of the ocean. The exhibition also shows the equipment used to explore the oceans and recover organisms, as well as the remarkable results achieved by marine research. Last but not least, the influence of humans on the oceans is also addressed.

The ROV KIEL 6000 is a remote-controlled system developed by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel for scientific missions in the deep sea. The “Marine Research” exhibition at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum features a replica pilot’s station of such a deep-sea robot. From here, visitors can virtually dive into the deep sea!