Today, I popped along to The World’s Greatest Museum for a look at their new exhibition. The Deep, obviously, tackles the inky realms of the world’s oceans. The small but educational show outlines the history of oceanographic research, the ancient mythologies of the high seas and the ecological threats to this still-mysterious environment, most recently brought home by events in the Gulf of Mexico. Best of all, it’s a crowd-pulling chance to show off some of the Natural History Museum’s deep ocean specimens and, boy, are they ugly.

Until the 19th Century, absolutely nothing was known about the deep oceans – by far the largest ecosystem on the planet. All we had was speculation. Was their life down there? Perhaps sea monsters. Some, including Ferdinand Magellan, even speculated that the seas were bottomless. The first scientific missions, such as the Challenger expedition of the 1870s, caught the first glimpses of the incredible forms of life dwelling beyond the realm of sunlight. But it wasn’t until the advent of submersibles in the past century that we really got a feel for the biodiversity. And it remains just a ‘feel’. As the exhibition points out, the volume is so vast and under-explored, we really only have the merest idea of what might be down there.

It’s a decent introduction to some of these themes and a good deal of thought has gone into the presentation. The whole exhibition is bathed in a deep blue light, with upcoming sections glimpsed through semi-transparent netting. A light piano sound track (Saint-Saëns?) plays in the background and we swear we caught the odd whiff of sea salt.

The specimens on show are mostly small and somewhat overwhelmed by the ever-present video screens. This is, perhaps, a reflection of the difficulties of deep sea research: obtaining specimens is a complicated business, with those on show only hinting at the grotesque menagerie glimpsed from the windows of submersibles. It’s also an exhibition that will appeal more to adults or older children, relying on a great deal of reading and not much hands-on malarkey. That said, there’s a walk-through mock-up of a submersible and a model bathosphere to grapple with and a gift shop stocked to the gunwales with cuddly nauticalia. For an £8 (adult) entrance fee, some may feel a little short changed, but there certainly is buried treasure here if you’re prepared to dive deep.

The Deep runs at the Natural History Museum from 28 May to 5 September. Entrance is £8 for adults, £4.50 for children/concessions.