A diver in her 70s has set herself a ’Mission Blue’

Sylvia Earle is 78, but she’s still diving and urging us to help save the oceans, says Jonathan deBurca Butler

IT has been 60 years since Dr Sylvia Earle’s first dive, but her memories of it are as clear as those blue waters all those years ago.

“It was in the Gulf of Mexico, about five miles off the coast of Florida,” says the 78-year-old. “It was such a joy to actually realise that I could breathe under water for longer than I could hold my breath; to see all the fish who were, in turn, looking at me. I didn’t expect that, actually. If you go into a forest, birds will usually fly away and animals usually get out of your way, too, and disappear, but in the ocean the animals are more innocent, I suppose, and you find yourself surrounded by these creatures, each one with their own face and features, who are, in turn, curious about you; this creature who has dropped in through their ceiling.”