{"id":3418,"date":"2012-02-23T15:29:25","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T15:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/?p=3418"},"modified":"2022-07-09T19:37:30","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T19:37:30","slug":"sylvia-earle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/articles\/sylvia-earle\/","title":{"rendered":"Earle, Sylvia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"by Barbara Krystal <\/em>(2020)<\/p>\n

EARLE, SYLVIA ALICE. (1935-  ). Marine biologist, ocean conservationist, underwater explorer, and author Sylvia Earle wrote in The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean\u2019s Are One <\/em>(2009): \u201cEven if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born on August 30, 1935 in Gibbstown, New Jersey, Earle credits being knocked off her feet by a wave on the New Jersey shore at the age of three for inspiring her fascination with the ocean and her interest in biology. Earle began her scientific studies as a young girl. She collected tadpoles from a pond on her family farm, recording her observations in a journal. By the time she was sixteen, prior to the invention of SCUBA, Earle clamped on a diving helmet and accomplished her first dive. Since then, she has logged over 7,000 hours underwater. Earle earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in marine botany (focusing on algae) from Florida State University (1955) and continued her coursework at Duke University where she earned a master\u2019s degree (1956). Before completing a doctorate (1966) for cataloging the distribution and ecology of algae along the Gulf of Mexico, Earle became the only woman to accompany a group of scientists aboard the Anton Bruun<\/em> (1964) for a six-week expedition sponsored by the National Science Foundation to explore undersea life in the Indian Ocean. Earle continued to advance the knowledge of ocean species, and in 1969 she discovered a new red alga which she named Hummbrella hydra<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Earle is credited with many \u201cfirsts\u201d as a scientist, woman, and ambassador advocating to protect the biodiversity of oceans. In 1970, Earle led the NASA sponsored Tektite II, Mission 6 project, comprised of an all-female research team living fifty feet below the ocean surface for a period of two weeks. In 1979, she set the record for the deepest untethered walk on the ocean floor, descending 1,250 feet wearing a pressure resistant dive suit nicknamed \u201cJim.\u201d In the years since, The New Yorker<\/em> anointed Earle with the moniker \u201cHer Deepness\u201d (1989); Time<\/em> magazine named her the first \u201cHero for the Planet\u201d (1998); and the Library of Congress called her a \u201cLiving Legend\u201d (2000). Her advocacy for the ocean earned her a position as the first woman Chief Scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (1990-1992) where she was fondly known as the \u201cSturgeon General\u201d and later an Explorer in Residence for the National Geographic Society (1999).<\/p>\n

In addition to over 200 scientific papers, Earle wrote popular books celebrating the ocean\u2019s role as the \u201cblue heart\u201d of the planet. Her first book Exploring the Deep Frontier: The Adventure of Man in the Sea<\/em> (1980) commemorates the history of underwater exploration and its contributions to our knowledge of the diversity of species and their interactions. In Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans<\/em> (1995) Earle takes her audience on a journey to witness the impact of oil spills, whaling stations, fish markets, and toxic waste sites to illustrate the interconnectedness of all life and the need to establish worldwide marine sanctuaries. In The World is Blue<\/em>, Earle champions protection of global ecosystems centered around the world\u2019s oceans. Here she writes about the galaxy of creatures shaping the nature of life on Earth. In Blue Hope: Exploring and Caring for Earth\u2019s Magnificent Ocean<\/em> (2014), Earle chronicles the milestones of her life as an underwater explorer and includes photographs that tell a story of the ocean\u2019s marvelous contours and creatures.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Earle shared her experiences as a scientist in a TED Talk presentation \u201cMy Wish: Protect Our Oceans\u201d for which she won the Ted Talk prize. In a 2012 essay, “Mission Blue: Protect and Restore the Ocean, Earth’s Blue Heart,” which would lend its name to an Emmy award-winning documentary of the same name (2014) and her non-profit organization, Earle teaches to appreciate the ocean through a biological and poetic lens, stating that \u201cthe water, the green, the blue keep us alive.\u201d The Mission Blue\/Sylvia Earle Alliance promotes ocean preservation through the creation of marine sanctuaries known as Hope Spots. Earle also appeared in the documentary Sea of Hope<\/em> (2017), where she advocates for public custodianship for the oceans and the need for establishing \u201cBlue Parks.\u201d <\/p>\n

Earle joins scientist and popular author Carl Safina in calling for a \u201csea ethic\u201d that respects the ocean and the life forms dependent upon its health. For Earle, the ocean is life\u2019s elemental building block. She writes in Sea Change<\/em>: \u201cOur origins are there, reflected in the briny solution coursing through our veins and in the underlying chemistry that links us to all other life.\u201d <\/p>\n

The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean\u2019s Are One <\/em>(2009)<\/p>\n

Archive.org<\/a>
\nGoogle Books<\/a><\/p>\n

Exploring the Deep Frontier: The Adventure of Man in the Sea<\/em> (1980)<\/p>\n

Archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans<\/em> (1995)<\/p>\n

Archive.org<\/a>
\nGoogle Books<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Hope: Exploring and Caring for Earth\u2019s Magnificent Ocean<\/em> (2014)<\/p>\n

Google Books<\/a><\/p>\n

“The Sweet Spot in Time: Why the Ocean Matters to Everyone, Everywhere” (2012)<\/p>\n

VQR<\/a><\/p>\n

“Women Are Needed to Solve the Ocean’s Biggest Problem: Ignorance” (2016)<\/p>\n

United Nations Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

Sylvia Earle\u2019s dissertation, \u201cPhaeophyta of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico\u201d  (1968)<\/p>\n

Phycologia<\/a> (Taylor & Francis)<\/p>\n

\u201cMission Blue: Protect and Restore the Ocean, Earth\u2019s Blue Heart,\u201d Global Dialogue<\/em> (<\/em>2012)<\/p>\n

ProQuest<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch PBS News Hour “Brief But Spectacular”<\/p>\n

Watch “My Wish: Protect our Oceans,” TED Talk (2009)<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further Studies:<\/em><\/p>\n

Baker, Beth. Sylvia Earle: Guardian of the Sea<\/em>. Minneapolis, Lerner Publications Company, 2006. (school biography)<\/p>\n

Jue, Melody. “Interface: Breathing Underwater.” Wild Blue Media:<\/a> Thinking Through Seawater. <\/em>Durham, Duke University Press, 2020. 34-70.<\/p>\n

Kroll, Gary. “Eugenie Clark and Postwar Ocean Ichthyology: Gender, Oceanic Natural History, and the Domestication of the Ocean Frontier,” America’s Ocean Wilderness<\/a>: A Cultural History of Twentieth-Century Exploration. <\/em>Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2008, pp. 124-51.<\/p>\n

Mission Blue: Sylvia Earle Alliance<\/a><\/p>\n

Rozwadowski, Helen M. “Playing By–And On and Under–the Sea.”  Knowing Global Environments:<\/a> New Historical Perspectives on the Field Sciences, <\/em>edited by Jeremy Vetter. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 2010, pp. 162-85.<\/p>\n

This entry funded by a grant from the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment<\/p>\n

keywords: white, female, conservation, preservation, biology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Barbara Krystal (2020) EARLE, SYLVIA ALICE. (1935-  ). Marine biologist, ocean conservationist, underwater explorer, and author Sylvia Earle wrote in The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean\u2019s Are One (2009): \u201cEven if you never have the chance Continue reading &<\/span> text links<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,25918],"tags":[53756,53771,53798,53764,53782],"class_list":["post-3418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-e","tag-20th-century","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-indian-ocean","tag-nonfiction","tag-science-nature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3418"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6679,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418\/revisions\/6679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}