“The ocean certainly got my attention! It wasn’t frightening, it was more exhilarating.”

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.

If somebody dumps something noxious in my back yard, the dumper is the last one I would call on to repair the damage.

We have become frighteningly effective at altering nature.

Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.

My parents moved to Florida when I was 12, and my backyard was the Gulf of Mexico.

I actually love diving at night; you see a lot of fish then that you don’t see in the daytime.

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.’

In the first English class I attended, Prof. E. H. Elliot, addressing me, asked if I really belonged to the Junior B. A. class, and I had to answer him in the affirmative. He then proceeded to inquire how old I was.