ADVERTISEMENT
Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. or Join now .

Voice of the Ocean

Sylvia Earle addresses the state of our seas.

Article Lead Image
Sign up for the free Nautilus newsletter:
science and culture for people who love beautiful writing.
NL – Article speedbump
Explore

In the documentary, Mission Blue, about the environmental fate of the oceans, filmmaker James Cameron calls Sylvia Earle the “Joan of Arc of the seas.” That’s not the first superlative accorded Earle. A 1989 New Yorker profile of the oceanographer was titled “Her Deepness,” and Time magazine has named her a “Hero for the Planet.” Earle first gained public acclaim in 1970, when she was one of five female “aquanauts” to live in an underwater lab off the Virgin Islands for two weeks. Since then her studies of the oceans, and passionate defense of their ecological importance, have won international renown.

Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now .

Earle was featured in the Spring 2014 Nautilus Quarterly, which focuses on three themes in science: home, waste, and time. If there’s one subject that draws together all three themes, it’s the ocean, and if there’s one person who could speak for the ocean, it’s Earle. For our video interview, Earle, 78, met us in Alameda, California, at the headquarters of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, her consulting and engineering firm. Earle is also the founder of the environmental nonprofit group, Mission Blue: Sylvia Earle Alliance. In person she was gracious and accommodating, patiently explaining how the ocean, life’s first home, is in a race against waste and time.

ADVERTISEMENT
Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now .

This article was originally published in Nautilus magazine on April 3, 2014.

ADVERTISEMENT
Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now .

Published in partnership with:

close-icon Enjoy unlimited Nautilus articles, ad-free, for less than $5/month. Join now

! There is not an active subscription associated with that email address.

Join to continue reading.

You’ve read your 2 free articles this month. Access unlimited ad-free stories, including this one, by becoming a Nautilus member.

! There is not an active subscription associated with that email address.

This is your last free article.

Don’t limit your curiosity. Access unlimited ad-free stories like this one, and support independent journalism, by becoming a Nautilus member.