Speak about a deep dive.
From Saturday through Labor Day, wannabe oceanographers desperate to experience life underwater can plunge into the briny depths — without getting their feet wet — at Jersey City’s Liberty Science Center.
For an $8 upcharge on top of the museum’s $29.99 adult admission, budding Cousteau-aways and Atten-bros will board a totally interactive life-size replica of OceanXplorer — considered the world’s most advanced research and exploration vessel — for an investigative “journey” that can bring visitors up close and private with sharks, whales and other sea life.
The actual ship, which was built by OceanX, a hedge-fund-backed marine research and filmmaking initiative, will star within the upcoming television docuseries “Mission OceanX.”
Celebrating the ocean and deep sea exploration, the series is being produced by OceanX with BBC Studios Natural History Unit and Earthship Productions for National Geographic.
The replica is at the guts of a special exhibit, “OceanXperience,” developed with support from the National Geographic Society. It’s scheduled to tour museums world wide over the following seven years. The tri-state area is its first stop.
The 11,000-square-foot space, which mimics the experience of deep sea exploration via sights, sounds and science, was developed by Flying Fish, a respected producer of touring exhibitions.
“The whole lot that we’d experience onboard and visually experience onboard, they’ve built into the exhibit,” Mattie Rodrigue, director of science programs at OceanX, told The Post.
“So, every thing from learning about how we dive within the deep sea, how we use and operate remotely operated vehicles, how we collect samples, how we deploy tags on species of whale, how we visualize data, how we take a look at genetic information in a sample after which sequence that information, how we map whole ecosystems just using sound — these are all things that visitors will give you the option to [try],” she said.
This implies piloting a remote-operated vehicle to scan the ocean floor, or visiting Mission Control to see real data readings. The Wet Lab area accommodates all of the tools mandatory to research and analyze data collected in the course of the mission. Head to the HoloLab to try on and use HoloLens2 headsets, which were designed to help collaboration in scientific research.
Visitors may soak up the unique perspective of OceanX’s submersible craft via an immersive projection. The display uses nine separate projections of real OceanX footage and recorded sounds.
If visitors are still seeking to learn more, they will conduct one in all three guided research missions, either involving orca pod dynamics, humpback whale communication or hammerhead sharks of their tropical habitat.
Rodrigue advisable experiencing the submersibles, because “you actually feel the importance of bringing humans down into the deep sea environment and getting them to experience being down there.”
“The sequencing lab is [also] very cool since the team actually worked with us and with another researchers to actually help convey how you’ll use DNA to either take a look at the biodiversity in a sample or in an area or what discovering a recent species looks and looks like,” she said.
Rodrigue wants museumgoers to feel inspired and realize “the oceans are for everyone and in addition they need everybody.”
“I would like them to feel a part of it. I would like them to feel like they belong. I would like them to feel like they’re critical to what all of us do.”
