Any astronaut can tell you've got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it.

— Sylvia Earle

As a child, I was aware of the widely-held attitude that the ocean is so big, so resilient that we could use the sea as the ultimate place to dispose of anything we did not want, from garbage and nuclear wastes to sludge from sewage to entire ships that had reached the end of their useful life.

— Sylvia Earle

Earth as an ecosystem stands out in the all the universe. There's no place that we know about that can support life as we know it, not even our sister planet, Mars, where we might set up housekeeping someday, but at great effort and trouble we have to recreate the things we take for granted here.

— Sylvia Earle

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

— Sylvia Earle

For humans, the Arctic is a harshly inhospitable place, but the conditions there are precisely what polar bears require surviving - 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.

— Sylvia Earle

Health to the ocean means health for us.

— Sylvia Earle

Humans are the only creatures with the ability to dive deep in the sea, fly high in the sky, send instant messages around the globe, reflect on the past, assess the present and imagine the future.

— Sylvia Earle

I have heard endlessly that fish are so resilient that there is no way that you could exterminate a species. We are learning otherwise.

— Sylvia Earle

I hope for your help to explore and protect the wild ocean in ways that will restore the health and, in so doing, secure hope for humankind. Health to the ocean means health for us.

— Sylvia Earle

I love music of all kinds, but there's no greater music than the sound of my grandchildren laughing; my kids, too.

— Sylvia Earle