Whales: Beneath the Surface, review ★★★★★

Whales – creatures who outlived the dinosaurs and whose preferred delicacies are giant squids, seals, walruses, sharks, and tonnes of krill – are slowly but systematically being killed off by the most terrible and bloodthirsty apex predator on the face of the planet: humans.

The exhibition aims to enlighten the general public on the impact our actions have on the environment and the creatures who inhabit it. The Natural History Museum's president Sir Michael Dixon, believes we need reminding of ‘the scale of our responsibility to the planet. Species and ecosystems are being destroyed faster than we can describe them or even understand their significance.’



Sir Michael expressed this opinion after a failed #SaveDippy Twitter campaign, which started when it was revealed that Dippy the Dinosaur would be usurped by Hope the Whale as the piece de resistance in the Museum’s Hintze Hall. (To those concerned about Dippy: don’t worry, he is currently on tour.)

Hope is the most striking of the 100 specimens on display, all of which form a part of the world’s greatest resource for understanding the ecology and behaviour of whales. While this is her first time on display, she has in fact been an inhabitant of the museum since her purchase (for £250) in 1891. The staff have spent months preparing for her unveiling. Hope will now preside over the cavernous halls of the Natural History Museum for the foreseeable future.



Alongside Hope, the exhibition features an extensive collection of flippers, fossils, skulls, and assorted organs that explain the extraordinary evolutionary process of cetaceans. Find out if, like Dory, you can speak whale in an engaging exhibition that gets you sensing and navigating prey on the ocean floor using echolocation, and check out the elusive Thames whale, who washed up on the banks in 2006.

The host of interactive elements in the exhibition, from a whale song jukebox to an educational film showing how whales breathe, makes this an engaging ride for the whole family - trust us, you'll have a whale of a time.