Mission Blue Page #4

the meanest, the most crafty...

Uh-oh. That flashing

white belly,

that's no tuna, that's a shark.

Our rights to the fish are being disputed

by those savages of the ocean, the shark.

But, in fact, that

wasn't the real problem.

Sharks were never after humans.

Man or woman.

We're not on their menu.

But in today's world, millions of

us are taking bites out of sharks.

What's really tragic about it is they

don't even bother to keep the shark.

They just take the fins and throw

the shark back in the water...

essentially to die.

It's tens of millions

of shark fins

that are harvested every year

for soup, principally in China.

It essentially created an

enormous hole in the ecosystem

and the way the ecosystem works.

Shark finning is one of the

most barbaric examples

of what we're doing

to the ocean.

But it's not just what's happening

to the sharks that matter.

The bottom of the

ocean's food chain,

plankton, as well as plants

like algae and seaweed,

generate more than half

the oxygen we breathe.

In the Galapagos Islands, there

are some species that...

that are missing.

And there are new things that have

come in that didn't exist before.

If you don't have a record...

you might speculate,

you might guess...

- Right.

- ...but this is evidence.

- This is hard evidence.

- Beautiful evidence, too.

Brings back such great memories.

What was your second

husband's name?

Giles Mead.

Okay, so how did you meet Giles?

I met Giles Mead at a

scientific meeting about fish.

There is a society called the Association

of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.

That's a little weird, Sylvia.

I know.

They have annual meetings

and whoop it up and talk about fish

and snakes and lizards and things.

We met at this meeting and

just began talking...

and we continued talking...

and we were still talking

at 5:
00 in the morning.

And we agreed that we should

continue the conversation.

Got married in Harvard

Chapel in December of '66.

Did he have kids, too?

Yes, he actually had

three children.

And then, in 1968, my younger

daughter, Gale, was born.

So we had his and hers and ours.

Wow. The Brady Bunch.

The most ambitious project

yet in ocean research

has just started here in the sheltered

bay of a beautiful West Indian island.

Called Tektite II, it's the underwater

base for a research project

being run by a group of

American universities

with United States

government backing.

When I was at Harvard in 1969, I saw

a notice on the bulletin board.

"How would you like, as a scientist,

to spend two weeks living underwater,

down in the Virgin Islands?" That was...

the pitch.

I'd already been diving a lot,

more than a thousand hours,

published a number of things,

and it didn't occur to me

that women need not apply.

And Jim Miller, head of the program, who

had to finally make the call, said,

"Well, half the fish are female,

half the dolphins, half the whales.

I guess we can put up

with a few women."

Now a team of divers will

attempt to live for two weeks

as quiet residents

on the sea floor.

Ironically, these aquanauts

are not men with extraordinary

physical endurance and stamina,

but five young and

attractive women.

The world's first

real live mermaids.

Their leader is a renowned scientist, Dr.

Sylvia Earle,

a marine botanist and

an experienced diver.

And so they settle down with

all the comforts of home...

TV, refrigerators, and

wall-to-wall carpeting.

You're warm and dry

while you're inside,

but you slip through a hole in the

floor and you're in the water.

And we could be in the water

10 to 12 hours a day.

I felt like a kid in a candy store

except that... everything was living.

You're outside

with the creatures

and you just get to know

them as individuals.

You actually see this

group of five angelfish

that are always there first

thing in the morning...

and they have different attitudes,

different personalities.

That's, I think,

what has given me

a different perspective

than most probably have.

Not just about the ocean, but about

the creatures who live there.

I went into the Tektite project

as an ivory tower scientist,

not really in the public eye.

But Tektite changed everything.

I...

Had to get out of my shell.

We had a parade down the

streets of Chicago.

Mayor Daley gave us

the keys to the city.

On To Tell The Truth, pick

out the real Sylvia Earle.

Sylvia Earle is number two.

American woman

Stay away from me

American woman

Listen what I say

Sylvia Earle was a pioneer...

invading the flannel shirt,

bearded oceanographer image.

There was a real sense that

women simply couldn't do this.

Well, they couldn't

pick up the tanks!

"You can't pick up

that equipment.

Here, let me help you with

your gear, little lady."

She really broke

through the barriers.

And for that, every woman scientist,

for example, should be very grateful.

Months later in California,

Tektite II, the Virgin Islands

and Greater Lameshur Bay

are just memories as Dr.

Earle, wife and mother,

plays with her daughter Elizabeth,

10, and her son Richie, 8.

For Dr. Earle and her husband, Dr.

Giles Mead,

Director of the Los Angeles

County Museum of Natural History,

Tektite II is a significant

milestone in reaching...

So you became sort of

famous after this.

I mean, you became a bit of

a public face for science.

And it was also great 'cause

you were not only smart,

but you were beautiful

and you made that okay.

Well, never occurred to

me that it wasn't okay.

What was tricky, let's say,

difficult, if anything,

was... trying to be a good

mom, trying to be a good wife,

trying to be good Mrs. Museum, Mrs.

Giles Mead,

trying to be presentable

at black tie parties,

trying to be good hostess,

trying to be good scientist.

It was... it was a tricky time.

But, I mean, it's life.

It's life.

And so... so you're in LA, and

how did it end with Giles?

Expedition to the

Comoro Islands in 1975.

A team was put together,

and Giles and I were to

be a part of this team.

We had our tickets, the

bags were packed...

and he said something had come up, that

he would meet me there, "Go ahead."

Time for his plane to arrive...

and the plane arrived,

but he wasn't on it.

I figured, "Well, he must've

been delayed somehow."

And... he was delayed.

He didn't come at all.

Being married to... a

very famous scientist,

who never understood

the glass ceiling

until, all of a sudden, she was better

than everybody where she worked.

That's really hard, you know?

I felt the pain

from time to time.

Wanting to do things that were

tough for me to do as a woman...

because I was a woman, and not

because I was a scientist.

You can think of a thousand excuses

why you can't do something.

The trick is... to not let that get

in the way of making things happen.

Numerous people have told me

that she's no June Cleaver.

Yeah, she's not sort

of the typical mom.

You don't really expect that

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