“My first encounter with the ocean was on the Jersey Shore when I was three years old and I got knocked over by a wave.”

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.

You don’t stand around arguing about who’s responsible, or who’s going to pay.

I love my Force Fins, which are the kind of fins Special Forces use and really are adapted from the fins of fish. They’re very efficient.

If we could magically transport ourselves back to the young Earth, when it was only a billion years old or two billion years old or three billion years old or four billion years old.

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

The concept of ‘peak oil’ has penetrated the hearts and minds of people concerned about energy for the future. ‘Peak fish’ occurred around the end of the 1980s.

We have been far too aggressive about extracting ocean wildlife, not appreciating that there are limits and even points of no return.

The sudden release of five million barrels of oil, enormous quantities of methane and two million gallons of toxic dispersants into an already greatly stressed Gulf of Mexico will permanently alter the nature of the area.

By the end of the 20th century, up to 90 percent of the sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins, groupers, turtles, whales, and many other large creatures that prospered in the Gulf for millions of years had been depleted by overfishing.

The Exxon Valdez spill triggered a swift and strong response that changed policies about shipping, about double-hulled construction. A number of laws came into place.

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.

The fragility, and even the degradation of our planet’s blue heart.

When I write a scientific treatise, I might reach 100 people. When the ‘National Geographic’ covers a project, it communicates about plants and fish and underwater technology to more than 10 million people.