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

The best scientists and explorers have the attributes of kids! They ask question and have a sense of wonder.

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

Just as we have the power to harm the ocean, we have the power to put in place policies and modify our own behavior in ways that would be an insurance policy for the future of the sea, for the creatures there, and for us, protecting special critical areas in the ocean.

There are some who would like to see the oil rigs removed right down to the ground once their job is done, and there are others, and I count myself among them, who think that once they are in place they begin to be adopted by life in the ocean as a habitat.

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 am not in any hurry to grow up.

What we once used as weapons of war, we now use as weapons against fish.

I’m not against extracting a modest amount of wildlife out of the ocean for human consumption, but I am really concerned about the large-scale industrial fishing that engages in destructive practices like trawling and longlining.

We wouldn’t be able to survive. We would have a hard time surviving if we were transported to the time when dinosaurs were around.

I’ve always said, ‘Underwater or on top, men and women are compatible.’

To lose it means that we will dismember the vital systems that make the Arctic work. It’s not just a cost to the people who live there. It’s a cost to all people everywhere.

Some experts look at global warming, increased world temperature, as the critical tipping point that is causing a crash in coral reef health around the world.

Green’ issues at last are attracting serious attention, owing to critically important links between the environment and the economy, health, and our security.

We have taken the manatees out of the areas in the Caribbean and really elsewhere in the world, and this disruption to the system makes such systems vulnerable to changes as they come by, whether it’s in terms of disease or terms or global warming for that matter.

It’s akin to using a bulldozer to catch a butterfly, destroying a whole ecosystem for the sake of a few pounds of protein. We wouldn’t do this on land, so why do it in the oceans?

Any astronaut can tell you 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.