Written by Sarah Marden, Curator of Natural History at The Box, Plymouth.

From March 2024 to April 2025, a new exhibition at The Box called Planet Ocean explored Plymouth’s marine heritage and contemporary identity as “Britain’s Ocean City”. Specimens from our natural history collections, including spirit-preserved marine invertebrates, molluscs, corals, mounted sea birds and seaweed folios were displayed alongside art, world cultures collections, image and film and loan material from local partners.

Flowers of the Sea folio by Emily Johns, © Dom Moore

Taking inspiration from science fiction writer and undersea explorer Arthur C Clarke who said “how inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly ocean”, we explored why the ocean is so important- the fact that we literally couldn’t survive without it as it gives us around half the oxygen we breathe, but also that it sustains and supports us locally with food, jobs, leisure, health and wellbeing. Alongside this quote, the entrance wall of the exhibition featured a moving graphic created collaboratively with Plymouth Marine Laboratory. It used one of the oldest datasets in existence of changing ocean temperatures recorded in Plymouth Sound. This data was input into a globe representing our ocean planet that changed and distorted according to the human impact of climate change over time. This was the first example of science meeting art and partnerships that we developed throughout the exhibition.

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