Sylvia Earle. Text

 

On a recent Sunday morning, 28 kids from the Cabo Pulmo Youth Center stood on a beach in Cabo Pulmo, Mexico. They wore life jackets and flippers. They fitted snorkel tubes in their mouths. And they strapped on masks. Then they waddled into the cool water. Teachers were there to help. One of them was a famous oceanographer. Her name is Sylvia Earle.

“It was very, very exciting,” 12-year-old Edmundo Minjares told TIME Edge, in Spanish.

The kids waded to about 60 feet offshore. Edmundo and his friends dunked their heads into the salty water. What they saw was beautiful. There were rocks and coral. Fish were feeding along the ocean floor.

For many of the children, it was their first time exploring this underwater world. But it was nothing new for Earle. “It was glorious,” she has said about her first time diving in the Gulf of California, years ago. “It still is glorious.”

A Shining Example

Sylvia Alice Earle was born on August 30, 1935, in Gibbstown, New Jersey. She has been interested in the ocean since she was small. “When I was 3 years old, I got knocked over by a wave and it got my attention,” she told TIME in 2014. "It’s held my attention ever since." She has spent more than 7,000 hours underwater.

In 2008, Earle started Mission Blue. The group works to protect the ocean. Earle calls the ocean the “blue heart” of the planet. Mission Blue has named 59 Hope Spots around the world. These are areas of the ocean that are either protected or in need of protection. The Gulf of California Hope Spot is one of the world’s most protected ocean areas.

It wasn’t always that way. Overfishing in the 1980s caused a sharp drop in the number of fish in the area. The health of the reef was in danger. The people of Cabo Pulmo were worried. They asked the Mexican government to protect the waters. In 1995, the government took action by creating the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park. Fishing is not allowed.

Today, the number of fish in the area has increased by nearly 500%. The change has given the area an economic boost. Tourism has become an important business in Cabo Pulmo. “It’s a shining example of what a marine protected area should look like,” says Mission Blue’s Kip Evans.

Hope for the Future

The Mission Blue team wants the world to know that Cabo Pulmo is a priceless treasure. “The kids know Cabo Pulmo is a special place,” says Pilu Hermosilla of Cabo Pulmo Diving. She was one of the teachers on the Sunday morning trip with Earle. “The kids, the village, and the families here, they protect the reefs like nothing [else].”

What can you do? Kip Evans says snorkeling will help you learn about sea life. “It’s a great way to introduce yourself to the ocean,” he says. But even if you don’t live near the water, you can still make a difference. “The most important thing is to be passionate about one of the most important features on our planet,” says Evans.