Saturday, August 22, 2009

A Day in the Life of Dr. Sylvia Earle, Champion of the Oceans, on Bonaire

Dr. Sylvia Earle visited Bonaire this past week to help commemorate the island’s Celebrate Our Planet week and also receive Bonaire’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.  The Bonaire Insider chronicled one day of this amazing woman’s visit.  Images of the day are available on the Bonaire Insider Photo Gallery by clicking here. 

The Lifetime Achievement Award is certainly deserving, as this is one gutsy lady.  Throughout her career, she has forged many “firsts” in the field of oceanography, but here’s just a few:  Dr. Earle set the women’s depth record of 1250 feet (381 meters) in an open-ocean JIM suit dive, and she also holds the women’s record for a solo dive in a deep submersible (3280 feet, 1000 meters). She was Chief Scientist for NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), while even today, Dr. Earle continues as a consultant to The National Geographic Society.  Her most recent accomplishment was to work with the folks at Google to post the world’s oceans on Google Earth (version 5).

I had the good fortune to spend a day with her during her visit.  Dr. Earle is a petite woman with a modest demeanor, but she’s one powerhouse of a woman when speaking.  Her goal is to get the word out that everyone simply must begin taking better care of the world’s oceans.  Her mantra, “without the blue {oceans}, there is no green {land}” should sound a resounding warning bell for not only divers, but everyone, as the health of the planet’s oceans will directly impact every human being on earth.  We all must be more aware of what we are putting into the oceans, as well as what we are taking out.  She wishes to see less pressure on fish stocks throughout the world and advocates eating less seafood to give fish stocks time to replenish themselves.  In many cases, ten pounds, and sometimes up to 100 pounds, of by-catch (the killing of non-desired species for desired species), are wasted and killed for every pound of food produced.  In recent decades, the demand for seafood has exponentially exploded, and the seas simply cannot withstand the demand and impact anymore.

We began our day by making a dive to Captain Don’s Reef at Klein Bonaire.  Dr. Earle is an excellent diver, making no impact at all on the reef.  She spotted a total of six turtles on this dive, along with a plethora of other marine life--moray eels, grouper, snapper, flounder, hamlets, as well as other invertebrate species (corals, sponges, and mollusks), which are commonly sighted on Bonaire. 

After the dive, there was time for a quick lunch, and then Dr. Earle presented an impromptu seminar about her global mission--to educate the public about the importance of keeping the world’s oceans healthy.  We then viewed her “wish” speech, from earlier this year when Dr. Earle was named a recipient of a TED Prize.  For those not familiar with TED, it’s a small nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design, but since then, its scope has become ever more broad.  The organization chooses three recipients each year and does its utmost to grant them each one wish.  Dr. Earle’s wish is:  “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.” (View her speech by clicking here, and then click on Watch the Talk.)

Dr. Earle congratulated Bonaire for its past and present efforts in ocean conservation, but urged even yet stronger efforts.  She said that Bonaire has the capacity to be the benchmark for the Caribbean, as well as other regions, in leading the way to healthier reefs.  Even though Bonaire’s reefs are in better condition than many other areas in the region, there are signs of stress.  However, Dr. Earle strongly feels that there is still time to make changes that would allow full recovery.

The day closed with the participants of the morning dive reviewing images with Dr. Earle.  She pointed out signs of healthy areas on the reef, as well as those which are showing stress.  Afterwards, Dr. Earle met champion freediver, Karol Meyer.

Thanks go to Sara Matera and Serge de Groot from Divi Flamingo Beach Resort for hosting the morning dive, and to Jack Chalk at Captain Don’s Habitat for being the property sponsor for Dr. Earle and for providing conferencing facilities for her seminar. (Source:  Bonaire Insider reporter, photo gallery images by Dr. Sylvia Earle and Susan Davis)