Sightings | Alumni News

Sylvia A. Earle: Her Marriage to the Sea

Sylvia A. Earle has had a love affair with the ocean since the age of four. She remembers the excitement she felt as she drove with her parents toward the coast, chased crabs and examined the treasures receding tides left strewn across the sand.

In a 1998 profile of Earle for Heroes of the Planet, she remarked that part of her attraction to the sea is that the scientist in her is drawn to "the place where the history of life actually can be found, not in fossils, but in living creatures that represent life as it has been, perhaps, from the beginning of time."

Earle's bond to the ocean was formalized in 1966 when she left Duke to pursue a life of exploration and research. Her work broke down gender barriers in a field dominated by men. As the captain of the first team of women in the government-sponsored Tektite Project, a two-week underwater experimental precursor to the operational Space Station, she overcame the public's label of "acuababe" to garner accolades as a scientist. It has been this focus and drive that has made Earle a success in all her endeavors.

Following years of research at Harvard University and the University of California at Berkley, Earle was selected by President Carter to serve on the President's Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere in 1980. During the 1980s, Earle founded two engineering firms specializing in the design of underwater equipment. In 1992, she started Deep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER), a company providing cutting edge technologies and operational support for the U.S. Navy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Canadian Department of Defense and numerous research institutions worldwide. In 1990, through an appointment by President Bush, she became the first woman to serve as chief scientist of NOAA.

After years of learning from the sea, she decided to give back to the oceans so that future generations might have the same opportunity. Utilizing her experience as an academic, business leader, and teacher, Earle turned her focus to her life-long commitment to save the seas.

"While children are being taught their ABC's and numbers, they also should learn about the significance of the natural world. The importance of inspiring youngsters with a love of nature led me to begin writing books for children, as well as for adults."

Earle has written three children's books, Hello Fish, Sea Critters and Dive!, a winner of five awards for excellence. A fourth on coral reefs will be published in 2002. She also is author of National Geographic's Ocean Realm, Exploring the Deep Frontier, Wild Ocean and the 2001 publication Atlas of the Ocean. Earle's 1995 book, Sea Change, published by G. P. Putnam Sons, conveys personal experiences gained during nearly a half century of ocean exploration and provides the basis for what she calls "ocean ethic."

In 1998, she was named explorer-in-residence for the National Geographic Society's launch of the five-year Sustainable Seas Expeditions project. The five-year project was designed to conduct exploration, research and education in the nation's marine protected areas, a young but promising counterpart to the National Park System.

In 2001, she accepted an appointment to lead the newly established Harte Institute for Marine Research at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, Texas. In January, she was named executive director of marine conservation of Conservation International, and now leads the organization's conservation efforts in some of the world's most biologically important and threatened marine ecosystems.

Through all her endeavors, Earle remains connected to Duke. As a member of the Marine Lab Advisory Board, she has worked along side other ocean enthusiasts offering guidance to Michael K. Orbach, director of the Duke Marine Lab, in support of the Nicholas School's quest to make Duke's marine facilities the best in the nation.

"Just as Harold Humm, C.G. Bookhout, Hugo Blomquist, John Costlow and others inspired me as a student at the Duke Marine Lab in the 1950s with their enthusiasm and high standards, so are new generations inspired and shaped by people such as Michael Orbach who continue to make this place among the best in the world. The spirit lives on; the excellence endures."

by Jill Range, director of alumni affairs