Quotes from Sylvia Earle

All through college, I had frequently been the only girl in a science class - which wasn't such a bad deal.

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

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

I'm not against extracting a modest amount of wildlife out of the ocean for human consumption, but I am really concerned about the large-scale industrial fishing that engages in destructive practices like trawling and longlining.

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.

The ocean is our life support system. No blue, no green. It's really a miracle that we have got a place that works in our favor.

Every time I slip into the ocean, it's like going home.

Since the middle of the 20th century, more has been learnt about the ocean than during all preceding human history; at the same time, more has been lost.

Life in the ocean makes Earth hospitable. We are sailing along in the universe and we have a blue engine that is making everything alright.

The most important part is to take on the challenge of protecting the ocean as if your life depends on it - because it does.

Nearly all of the major kinds of life, divisions of life, phyla of animals, occur in the sea. Only about half of them can make it to land or freshwater.

We are depleting this immense diversity and abundance of life, and it matters tremendously for the future of the planet.

I've had the joy of spending thousands of hours under the sea. I wish I could take people along to see what I see, and to know what I know.

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

There is this sweet spot in time when we have an opportunity to stop killing sharks and tunas and swordfish and other wildlife in the sea before it's too late.

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.

For humans, the Arctic is a harshly inhospitable place, but the conditions there are precisely what polar bears require to survive - and thrive. 'Harsh' to us is 'home' for them. Take away the ice and snow, increase the temperature by even a little, and the realm that makes their lives possible literally melts away.

Look at the bark of a redwood, and you see moss. If you peer beneath the bits and pieces of the moss, you'll see toads, small insects, a whole host of life that prospers in that miniature environment. A lumberman will look at a forest and see so many board feet of lumber. I see a living city.

Meat reared on land matures relatively quickly, and it takes only a few pounds of plants to produce a pound of meat.

We are all together in this, we are all together in this single living ecosystem called planet earth.

I am not in any hurry to grow up.

The sudden release of five million barrels of oil, enormous quantities of methane and two million gallons of toxic dispersants into an already greatly stressed Gulf of Mexico will permanently alter the nature of the area.

It's taken us a short time to change the nature of nature. In my lifetime, more change than during all preceding human history put together.

I actually love diving at night; you see a lot of fish then that you don't see in the daytime.