Mission Blue Page #3

Yeah, I watch. But think of

the world without an ocean.

You've got a planet

a lot like Mars.

No convenient life

support system.

Most of the oxygen that you

breathe, that everybody breathes,

is generated by the ocean.

And it absorbs much of

the carbon dioxide.

In a way, we're all

sea creatures.

Every whale, dolphin,

coral reef, whatever...

they obviously need the

ocean, but so do we.

No ocean, no life.

No ocean, no us.

So were you that geeky

girl in high school?

The science nerd?

I suppose, in today's terminology,

I would be regarded as a geek.

People sometimes have a hard time

figuring out what they want to do.

I always wanted to be whatever

it is that a scientist does,

I just didn't know

what to call it.

There's a little

library in Dunedin...

that I used to haunt.

I'd sit on the floor and that's where

I first saw a book by William Beebe,

and became entranced with

the idea of submarines.

His book, Half Mile Down, it

was published in the '30s...

described how he and Otis Barton

crawled into this little steel

ball with a tiny window in it,

and could look out and see what it was

like a half-mile beneath the surface.

What it's like in the deep sea

with these sparkling creatures

that illuminate the sea below

where light penetrates.

So, I never got to meet William Beebe,

but I regard him as a soul mate.

Jacques Cousteau was able to

vicariously, and sometimes directly,

get people in the water.

He got me in the water

by inspiring me to say,

"That's so cool! I wanna go!

I wanna see it!"

His Silent World made me

want to see what he saw.

To meet fish swimming in something other

than lemon slices and butter on a plate.

To actually go and witness

this vast blue realm.

Before the 1950s, diving had been

very risky and experimental...

until Cousteau invented

the Aqua-Lung,

and became one of the first

to use a Self-Contained Underwater

Breathing Apparatus, SCUBA.

He showed how simple it could

be to explore the sea.

In the summer of 1953, I enrolled

in a class in marine biology.

My major professor

somehow managed

to get two of the very first

scuba sets that were available.

Come with me, my love

To the sea

The sea of love

I want to tell you

How much I love you

It seemed so improbable. You

can be underwater and breathe.

Come with me

Most of all, it was

the gift of time.

Be able to actually stay and watch

the creatures that were there.

And it made me want to always

go deeper, stay longer.

Was there that moment,

like in a movie,

if we were in a movie of Sylvia

Earle's life, like you're...

- The "Ah-ha" moment?

- Yeah, somebody puts...

You put the mask on and you're

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