Sylvia Earle Quotes - Page 2

There's plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water.

Health to the ocean means health for us.

I want everybody to go jump in the ocean to see for themselves how beautiful it is, how important it is to get acquainted with fish swimming in the ocean, rather than just swimming with lemon slices and butter.

Great attention gets paid to rainforests because of the diversity of life there. Diversity in the oceans is even greater.

We have become frighteningly effective at altering nature.

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

If you think the ocean isn't important, imagine Earth without it. Mars comes to mind. No ocean, no life support system.

It doesn't matter where on Earth you live, everyone is utterly dependent on the existence of that lovely, living saltwater soup. There's plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water.

I want to get out in the water. I want to see fish, real fish, not fish in a laboratory.

This much is certain: We have the power to damage the sea, but no sure way to heal the harm.

We're still under the weight of this impression that the ocean is too big to fail, that the planet is too big to fail.

I am driven by what I know; that the world I love is in trouble.

Ten percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There are still some krill in Antarctica. There are a few oysters in Chesapeake Bay. Half the coral reefs are still in pretty good shape, a jeweled belt around the middle of the planet. There's still time, but not a lot, to turn things around.

We have to look in the mirror first. What are we doing? How can we make a change? It always starts with looking in the mirror. Every individual can. Every individual can make a difference either by proactively doing something positive or by doing nothing. That's a decision, too.

Our job is to keep what is working intact and not destroy what we have got.

When I was 12, we moved from New Jersey to Florida. The Gulf of Mexico was literally my backyard. Every day, I could see the ocean. At low tide I went out and played in seagrass meadows that used to come right up to the shore, filled with tiny seahorses, pipefish and soft corals. There was so much life! But then I witnessed the change, the loss of the shoreline, the loss of the mangrove trees, the loss of the seagrass meadows. Shallow bay areas were turned into parking lots.

Use your power to do whatever it takes to secure for humankind an enduring place on this little blue speck in the universe - our only hope.

We still have 10 percent of the sharks. We still have half of the coral reefs. However, if we wait another 50 years, opportunities might well be gone.

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 five year old.

I find the lure of the unknown irresistible.

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

You should ask where your food is coming from.

Look at a child and realize that their future is in your hands. It's not just those who will be here fifty years from now. The decisions we make in the next ten years will shape the next 10,000 years.

Knowledge is the key to making a difference.

The value of sharks' lives is now widely understood to be more important than their value as products. And when you have sharks in an area, it's a sign of good health. They're top predators, which means they feed on old, sick, and slower fish, keeping an entire population healthy.