In May and June each year Horseshoe crabs gather on the shoreline of New York’s Jamaica Bay to breed. These living fossils have been doing such for over 400 million years! This responsive Sea lion in kelp forest is just one of the amazing virtual reality encounters that you can experience in New York’s immersive National Geographic Encounter Ocean Odyssey.

Believe it or not, these coastal wetlands are just off JFK airport, New York!

Celebrating World Oceans Day in 2019 and I’ve just returned from a week’s holiday in New York, a maritime City with much to offer people like me who enjoy all things marine!

The New York legislature are poised on the brink of an historic change that would positively impact the World’s oceans like nothing before!

A majority of sponsors in the New York Senate and the Assembly now support The Climate and Community Protection Act. This legislation would transition the State’s entire economy off of fossil fuels by 2050, invest in the communities most impacted by the climate crisis, and ensure that green jobs pay fair wages. 

Having just seen overcrowded Walruses plunging to their deaths off cliffs due to shortage of arctic sea ice, on Sir David Attenborough’s Our Planet TV series this is welcome news indeed. This would be a major step forward and lead the way for others to follow. This is epic!

I learned at The National Geographic Encounter Ocean Odyssey that there’s arguably no better way to help improve the sad state of our oceans than reducing emissions of Carbon dioxide gas that’s warming the planet and acidifying the oceans. I learned from the exhibition that the natural pH for our sea water is 8.2, now it is 8.1, if it were neutral (pH 7) we’d lose most of our fish in a ghastly domino effect chain reaction! Click here for more.

The immersive experience plunges you into a series of immersive marine encounters with Tiger and Thresher sharks, Dolphins, Humboldt Squids, and even Humpback Whales! It involves 3-D projections, glow-in-the-dark fluorescing invertebrates, interactive encounters and a mind-blowing feeding frenzy maelstrom of diving gannets, racing tuna and bubble-fishing whales! This too, is epic!

Entering The National Geographic Encounter Ocean Odyssey in New York

While in New York we also visited The United Nations Organization Head Quarters and saw the very moving National Geographic exhibition on marine plastic pollution.

Surfing through tubes of green water and one-time use plastic debris, a minute seahorse clings to a plastic earbud — visitors impressed by lasting images of the 'disposable' plastic pollution in our oceans in today's Anthropocene period courtesy of the National Geographic and The United Nations in the United Nations Building.
Surfing through tubes of green water and one-time use plastic debris, a minute seahorse clings to a plastic earbud — visitors to the United Nations Building are impressed by lasting images of the ‘disposable’ plastic pollution in our oceans in today’s Anthropocene period courtesy of the National Geographic and The United Nations.
An Osprey flapping over a reed bed near Jamaica Bay.