Quotes by Sylvia Earle

About Sylvia Earle:

Sylvia Alice Earle is an American marine biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer. Since 1998 she has been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. Earle was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and was named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

As a child, I was aware of the widely-held attitude that the ocean is so big, so resilient that we could use the sea as the ultimate place to dispose of anything we did not want, from garbage and nuclear wastes to sludge from sewage to entire ships t...

Sylvia Earle

I love my Force Fins, which are the kind of fins Special Forces use and really are adapted from the fins of fish. They're very efficient. They are so beautiful, a pair is in the Museum of Modern Art. The set I have are ruby red. I call them my ruby f...

Sylvia Earle

The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids! They ask question and have a sense of wonder. They have curiosity. 'Who, what, where, why, when, and how!' They never stop asking questions, and I never stop asking questions, just like a...

Sylvia Earle

With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea.

Sylvia Earle

By the end of the 20th century, up to 90 percent of the sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins, groupers, turtles, whales, and many other large creatures that prospered in the Gulf for millions of years had been depleted by overfishing.

Sylvia Earle

When I arrived on the planet, there were only two billion. Wildlife was more abundant, we were less so; now the situation is reversed.

Sylvia Earle

I have lots of heroes: anyone and everyone who does whatever they can to leave the natural world better than they found it.

Sylvia Earle

Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative - don't wait for someone else to ask you to act.

Sylvia Earle

I find the lure of the unknown irresistible.

Sylvia Earle

We have been far too aggressive about extracting ocean wildlife, not appreciating that there are limits and even points of no return.

Sylvia Earle

Sharks are beautiful animals, and if you're lucky enough to see lots of them, that means that you're in a healthy ocean. You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don't see sharks.

Sylvia Earle

Far and away, the greatest threat to the ocean, and thus to ourselves, is ignorance. But we can do something about that.

Sylvia Earle

Ice ages have come and gone. Coral reefs have persisted.

Sylvia Earle

Ocean acidification - the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is turning the oceans increasingly acid - is a slow but accelerating impact with consequences that will greatly overshadow all the oil spills put together. The warming trend that ...

Sylvia Earle

Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.

Sylvia Earle

Photosynthetic organisms in the sea yield most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, take up and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, shape planetary chemistry, and hold the planet steady.

Sylvia Earle

I have come up at the end of a dive, and the boat was not where I left it. I had to take care of a buddy who did panic. But I was confident the boat would come back.

Sylvia Earle

We have taken the manatees out of the areas in the Caribbean and really elsewhere in the world, and this disruption to the system makes such systems vulnerable to changes as they come by, whether it's in terms of disease or terms or global warming fo...

Sylvia Earle

For heaven's sake, when you see the enemy attacking, you pick up the pitchfork, and you enlist everybody you see. You don't stand around arguing about who's responsible, or who's going to pay.

Sylvia Earle

Forty percent of the United States drains into the Mississippi. It's agriculture. It's golf courses. It's domestic runoff from our lawns and roads. Ultimately, where does it go? Downstream into the gulf.

Sylvia Earle

Author Bio

  • NameSylvia Earle
  • DescriptionAmerican oceanographer
  • BornAugust 30, 1935
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionBiologist; Oceanographer
  • AwardsNational Women's Hall Of Fame