Called “Her Deepness” by the New Yorker, “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, and the first “Hero for the Planet” by Time, Sylvia Earle is an eminent oceanographer, explorer, conservationist, author and lecturer with a lifetime of pathsetting experience as a field research scientist.
Dr. Earle has led more than 60 expeditions and logged more than 6,000 hours underwater, including leading the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970. In 1979, she walked un-tethered in an armored diving suit on the sea floor at a depth lower than any other person before or since (1,250 feet). More recently, she led the deep ocean engineering project known as Ocean Everest, in which she piloted a submersible to a depth of 11 km (36,000 ft).
Earle developed her love of aquatic life and the environment at an early age — first at the family farm in New Jersey, which featured a pond teeming with diverse wildlife, and later when her family moved to the west coast of Florida. Today, she is the best-known woman marine scientist on the planet.
After earning a doctoral degree in botany from Duke University in 1966, Earle became resident director of the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. In 1967 she began working as a research scholar at the Radcliffe Institute in Massachusetts and as a research fellow at Farlow Herbarium at Harvard University. From 1969 to 1981, Earle conducted research at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1976 she became curator of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and a research associate in botany at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. In 1990 she was appointed chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), becoming the first woman to hold that post.
In 1992 Dr. Earle founded Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, now DOER Marine Operations, an ocean engineering firm which designs, operates, supports and consults on manned and robotic sub-sea systems. In addition to serving as Chair of her company, she is the leader of Sustainable Seas Expeditions, an adjunct scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and is a member of various boards, foundations, and committees dealing with marine research, policy and conservation.
Throughout much of her career, Earle has focused on the biology of algae in the Gulf of Mexico. Her 1966 doctoral thesis on this subject is still considered an important resource. Earle has collected more than 20,000 algae samples, which provide a baseline for studying changes in the Gulf’s waters over time. Two types of marine life have been named in her honor: Diadema sylvie, a sea urchin, and Pilinia earleae, a marine plant.
Her research concerns marine ecosystems with special reference to exploration and the development and use of new technologies for access and effective operations in the deep sea and other remote environments. Her research on humpback whales is recorded in the documentary film Gentle Giants of the Pacific (1980). Her 1995 book, Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans, has been described as a Rachel Carson-like plea for the preservation of the oceans. She has made many contributions to the design of submersible craft, and she coauthored Exploring the Deep Frontier (1980), which focuses on deep-sea exploration.
In addition to 15 honorary degrees, Earle has received many awards, including the Director’s Award of the Natural Resources Council of America (1992), the prestigious United Nations Environment Award, the Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award and the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark, as well as medals from the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, the Lindbergh Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation, Sigma Xi, Barnard College, the New England Aquarium, the Seattle Aquarium, the Society of Women Geographers, and the National Parks Conservation Association. She is an executive director for corporate and nonprofit organizations that include the Aspen Institute, the Conservation Fund, American Rivers, Mote Marine Laboratory, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Rutgers Institute for Marine Science, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and the Ocean Conservancy.
Determined to inform the world of her discoveries and the importance of ocean conservation, Earle has authored more than 150 scientific, technical, and popular publications, lectured in more than 60 countries, and appeared in hundreds of television productions. Dr. Earle continues to plead for understanding and preservation of the oceans, reminding us that if we do not care for our water, we will simply cease to exist.
