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Marine biologist, seabed explorer and former top US government scientist Sylvia Earle tells Phil McKenna how she helped to change George W. Bush鈥檚 mind 鈥� and why she is angry about the methods being used to clean up the Gulf oil spill

LEANING towards me so as not to disturb other guests, Sylvia Earle shouts in a barely controlled stage whisper: 鈥淚 just want to hit someone.鈥� We are waiting to be seated for breakfast at a swanky New York hotel overlooking Central Park. Later in the day, Earle will address a sell-out crowd at the city鈥檚 annual World Science Festival, but at the moment she has other things on her mind. Staring at a picture of an oil-covered pelican on the front page of the day鈥檚 paper, she is angry. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not their fault. They don鈥檛 deserve this,鈥� she says.

What鈥檚 upsetting her is, of course, the uncontrolled flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from the well drilled by the wrecked Deepwater Horizon rig. Given her lifelong devotion to the study and conservation of the seas, it isn鈥檛 hard to see why.

In 1970, not long after astronauts first walked on the moon, Earle led a team of all-female 鈥渁quanauts鈥� 鈥� a mixed team was deemed too controversial 鈥� to live for two weeks in an enclosed habitat on the ocean floor, conducting studies of seabed life. Earle has lived under water on nine different occasions and has logged nearly 7000 hours under the surface, including a 1979 solo walk on the sea floor 380 metres down without a tether to the surface. This earned her the record, still unsurpassed, for the deepest untethered dive not in a submersible, as well as the title 鈥淗er Royal Deepness鈥�.

Other accolades include the species named after her, including the sea urchin Diadema sylvie and Padina earlei, a fan-shaped brown alga. But today Earle鈥檚 thoughts are consumed by the ecosystems affected by the spill. Frustratingly, she has seen it all before. In 1989 she saw first-hand the catastrophic effects of spilt oil after the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William sound, Alaska. Pleas she made at the time for stiffer penalties for oil companies 鈥� to prevent anything similar ever happening again 鈥� seem to have had little effect. Then in 1991, as chief scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Earle led a study of the Persian Gulf after retreating Iraqi forces unleashed the largest marine oil spill in history.

The Deepwater Horizon spill strikes home particularly hard for Earle. As a 12-year-old, in 1947, she moved with her family to Florida鈥檚 Gulf coast. Six years later she learned to dive off Clearwater, Florida 鈥� when, as she describes it, 鈥渢he water was still clear鈥�. Earle went on to complete her master鈥檚 and PhD based on the Gulf鈥檚 fauna. In more than 50 years of diving, Earle has seen tremendous changes throughout the region, including the extinction of the Caribbean monk seal and a sharp drop in populations of large fish such as tuna, swordfish, marlin, grouper and snapper.

What worries her most about the current spill are the unknown effects of the dispersant chemicals used to break up oil into small droplets that sink into the water column. 鈥淚f they put dispersants into any body of water without the presence of oil, people would be up in arms about the release of such toxic substances,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut because they are being applied in the name of remediation, people stand by and say it鈥檚 OK. But it isn鈥檛 OK at all; it鈥檚 making the Gulf a big experiment with no baseline to judge the real consequences.鈥�

Federal government biologists who approved the use of dispersants say the chemicals are the lesser of two evils: they are toxic to some extent, but they keep the oil from reaching sensitive wetland habitat along the coast. I ask Earle about this but, aside from the limited use of dispersants to protect specific marshes from approaching slicks, she will have none of it.

鈥淒eploying dispersants at the well head and on the surface many miles from shore is shockingly irresponsible,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t means you are taking oil that could be collected on the surface and [causing] it to go where it is impossible to recover. Life in the water column is exposed to the chemicals from the surface鈥� and it鈥檚 killing all the way.鈥�

Too much emphasis is being placed on the coasts where people live and not the open ocean where the marine life is, she says. Part of the problem is the 鈥減athetic amount of investment鈥� by government agencies in submersibles that would allow them to observe subsurface effects first-hand.

Dispersants aside, Earle is critical of the lack of transparency among federal agencies handling the clean-up 鈥� in particular, the time it took for federal scientists to release reliable figures on the amount of oil pouring into the Gulf.

Earle does, however, understand the political pressures on federal scientists. As a NOAA official, she had the job of defending the government policy of supporting factory trawlers, even though as a scientist she opposed them. 鈥淭hey started calling me the Sturgeon General because I was speaking for the fish, not for the fishermen,鈥� she says. Frustrated by her inability to speak freely as an independent scientist she resigned from NOAA after just two years.

鈥淭hey started calling me the Sturgeon General because I was speaking for the fish鈥�

It鈥檚 a decision Earle doesn鈥檛 regret, and when she looks back on her career it鈥檚 her determination to speak freely on behalf of the seas that she sees as one of her greatest assets. She recalls a chance opportunity she had in April 2006 to sit at the same table as the then president, George W. Bush, and the environmental film-maker Jean-Michel Cousteau at a White House dinner. At the time, Bush was looking to establish a marine reserve off the coast of the Hawaiian islands that allowed fishing and drilling for oil and gas.

鈥淚 remember hearing myself saying to the president that while it was reasonable to try to accommodate fishermen, if you don鈥檛 have some places in world where fish are safe, you won鈥檛 have fish,鈥� Earle says. As she describes it, an intense discussion ensued that ended with the president telling his director of environmental policy that he wanted the largest area possible and he wanted it to be off-limits to fishing and drilling. Two months later, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument was officially established. At the time it was the largest marine reserve in the world.

Earle is now looking to build on efforts like this to create a network of what she calls 鈥渉ope spots鈥� 鈥� protected marine areas large enough to 鈥渞estore the blue heart of the planet鈥�. In 2009 to pursue her goal, and in April 2010 her newly formed helped raise $17 million towards marine conservation. Some of this will go to help enforce strict fishing regulations in the overfished waters surrounding the Galapagos, where she has just flown in from.

Earle is ambivalent about humanity鈥檚 ultimate influence on life on Earth. 鈥淥n the one hand we are our planet鈥檚 greatest nightmare, on the other hand we are our planet鈥檚 greatest hope,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e may eventually live up to our name as Homo sapiens or 鈥榯he wise ones鈥�, and do something to ensure an enduring place for ourselves within the natural systems that sustain us.鈥�