BEAUFORT, N.C. – As a child, Ari Friedlaender loved visiting aquariums and museums. But he never imagined that one day, his own work would be on display at one of the best known museums in the world.

Friedlaender, an assistant research scientist at the Nicholas School, is one of many scientists whose contributions make up the exhibits in the new Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. The hall opened to the public on September 27. 

His photographs from the Behavioral Response Study (BRS), a multinational research initiative studying the effects of underwater noise on beaked whales, appear in an “Ocean Today” kiosk in the new, 3,000-square-foot hall. The kiosks show details about current and ongoing research in the world’s oceans.

“I think these types of displays are able to portray research that’s being done in a way that a magazine or a publication can’t,” says Friedlaender, who is based at the 91 Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C. “It’s a good way to educate the public who wouldn’t have easy access to the information if we only published it in academic journals.”

Friedlaender’s work is displayed alongside a life-size model of a female North Atlantic Right whale, a 24-foot-long giant squid, an Indo-Pacific coral reef aquarium holding up to 74 species of fish and marine life, and countless specimens and models of other ocean creatures.

Originally, his photographs were used mainly for identification purposes during the BRS study, which involved putting suction-cup tags on beaked whales and pilot whales and observing how they reacted and changed their behavior when exposed to various types and levels of underwater noise.

Now, those same images are serving the equally important purpose of educating the public about the importance of marine science and conservation.

“This is a perfect forum to introduce people outside of our group of scientists to what we do, and let them know what the issues are,” he says.

Friedlander and his BRS colleagues – including researchers from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, the Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization, St. Andrews University in Scotland and the U.S. Navy – are working with scientists and conservationists around the world to try and understand more about the behaviors and critical habitats of beaked whales.

“These are very elusive and cryptic whales that feed over a mile down under the ocean on squid, and they are susceptible to noise,” Friedlaender explains. “Some types of sonar have been linked to stranding events, and we’re trying to find out at what level animals respond to these noises.”

Fellow Nicholas School researchers Doug Nowacek, Elliot Hazen and Pat Halpin are working with the BRS team to create habitat models that will help with the study of whale diving patterns and prey distributions. Once these models are in place, scientists hope they will be able to decipher more about what is actually happening with the whales.

“This work will tell us a great deal about the behavior of individual whales, which we can extrapolate to the population level to better understand what features of their environment the whales associate with,” Friedlaender says.

Friedlaender says he hopes the new exhibit at Sant Ocean Hall will showcase the type of cutting-edge research that is being done at the Nicholas School. He also hopes it piques the interest of potential students.

“The majority of people who go to the exhibit are school kids. If they associate our school’s name with what they’re seeing and reading about at the Smithsonian, maybe they’ll get excited about coming here and studying marine science and conservation,” he says.

“I’m really excited that this is happening,” he adds. “I hope we can continue doing research that is interesting and relevant enough to be showcased in the Ocean Hall for a long time to come.