Deep Blue Mission

Legendary oceanographer races against time to create hotspots to save marine animals from extinction.

Twinkling stars intrigued Sylvia Earle during her childhood. In her adult life, she filled her universe with them, often within touching distance. Except they were not in the night sky, but in the heavens below, the inner space within the depths of the ocean.

Now 81, the marine biologist, oceanographer and explorer in-residence at the National Geographic Society has plenty of anecdotes to captivate listeners.

Her tale began when she was 12 after reading William Beebe’s Half Mile Down. The book is about the American biologist’s adventure as the first person to observe deep sea animals in their native environment, almost 1,000m below the waters off Bermuda in 1934. It ignited Earle’s thirst to explore the ocean. 

Emulating Beebe’s pioneering journey, Earle dived and wandered untethered 381m beneath the Pacific Ocean in 1979.

Seven years later, the New Jersey native went farther down to 1,000m, in a submersible she helped to design. No woman has equalled her feats.