Sylvia Earle

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Sylvia Earle bigraphy, stories - American oceanographer

Sylvia Earle : biography

August 30, 1935 –

Sylvia Alice Earle (born August 30, 1935 in Gibbstown, New Jersey) is an American oceanographer, aquanaut and author. She was the chief scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1990 to 1992. Since 1998 she has been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, sometimes called "Her Deepness" or "The Sturgeon General". Sylvia Earle was named by Time Magazine as the first Hero for the Planet. She is an oceanographer, explorer, author, lecturer, Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, leader of the Sustainable Seas Expeditions, council chair for the Harte Research Institute for the Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, founder and chairman of the Deep Search Foundation, and finally the chair of the Advisory Council for the Ocean in Google Earth. Sylvia Earle has founded three companies, among them DOER Marine (Deep Ocean Exploration and Research) in Alameda, California.Earle (2009)

Mission Blue

In 2009, Earle won a TED Prize. With TED’s support, she launched Mission Blue, which aims to establish marine protected areas (dubbed "hope spots") around the globe.

“I wish you would use all means at your disposal – films! expeditions! the web! more! — to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.” – Sylvia Earle

With Mission Blue and its partners, Earle led expeditions to prospective hope spots: Cuba in 2009, Belize in January 2010, the Galápagos Islands in April 2010, and the Mesoamerican Reef in July 2011.

Publications

Education and career

Earle received a B.S. degree from Florida State University (1955) and a M.S. (1956) and PhD (1966) from Duke University. She was Curator of Phycology at the California Academy of Sciences (1979–1986) and a Research Associate at the University of California, Berkeley (1969–1981), Radcliffe Institute Scholar (1967–1969) and Research Fellow or Associate at Harvard University (1967–1981).

Sylvia Earle led the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970. In 1979, she made an open-ocean JIM suit dive to the sea floor near Oahu, setting a women’s depth record of . She also holds the women’s depth record for a solo dive in a submersible: .

From 1980 to 1984 she served on NACOA (the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere). In 1982 she founded Deep Ocean Engineering along with her husband, engineer and submersible designer Graham Hawkes, to design, operate, support, and consult on piloted and robotic sub sea systems.New York Times, , William J. Broad, 1993 August 3 (accessed 30 Juli 2012) In 1985, the Deep Ocean Engineering team designed and built the Deep Rover research submarine, which operates down to . By 1986, Deep Rover had been tested and Earle joined the team conducting training off Lee Stocking Island in The Bahamas. She left the company in 1990 to accept an appointment as a chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In 1992 she founded Deep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER Marine) to further advance marine engineering. The company, now run by her daughter Elizabeth, continues to design, build and operate equipment for deep ocean environments.

Since 1998, Earle has been an explorer in residence at the National Geographic Society.

The 1999 Sustainable Seas Expedition was led by Earle who also provided the DeepWorker 2000 submersible used to quantify the species of fish as well as the space resources utilized within the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

In 2011, she received an honorary doctorate from Smith College, and delivered the commencement address at Warren Wilson College.

She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2013.

Quotes

Accomplishments

Earle has led more than 100 expeditions worldwide involving in excess of 7,000 hours underwater in connection with her research. From 1998 to 2002 she led the Sustainable Seas Expeditions, a five-year program to study the United States National Marine Sanctuary sponsored by the National Geographic Society and funded by the Goldman Foundation. An expert on the impact of oil spills, she was called upon to lead several research trips during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 to determine environmental damage caused by Iraq’s destruction of Kuwaiti oil wells. She was also called to consult during the Deepwater Horizon Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 as well as following the oil spills from the Exxon Valdez and Mega Borg.