Featured Image Credit: Kip Evans, National Geographic Television
By Jessica Kittel
As a girl, it’s always nice to have strong females to inspire your aspirations, especially if those aspirations lie in a male-dominated field. Marine science is hard stuff!
Getting PhDs, doing fieldwork, and writing grants is just the tip of the iceberg. Throw being in a field dominated by males into the equation, during an era where women were only just beginning to be accepted in labs as a rule, and you realize it takes one tough lady to not just become a marine biologist, but to become a world renowned marine biologist.
Luckily for any little girls (or big girls) that want to be a marine biologist when they grow up, there are a number of remarkable women who have blazed the trail for us. These are the women that spent decades discovering, exploring, and researching the marine world and have been exceptionally successful at doing so. These are the originals, the classics if you will, of the female marine science badasses.
Dr. Jane Lubchenco
After acquiring a PhD in ecology from Harvard (no biggie), Dr. Lubchenco went on to be one of the most highly cited ecologists in the whole wide world! Specializing in oceans, biodiversity, climate change, and interactions between humans and the environment, she is now a distinguished professor at Oregon State University where she co-runs a lab with her husband, Dr. Bruce Menge (another notable and highly respected marine biologist). From 2009 until 2013, Dr. Lubchenco was the Administrator of a little federal agency called the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (aka NOAA), again, no biggie. After her time as administrator, she returned to her position at OSU and was chosen by President Obama as the first U.S. Science Envoy for the ocean. She’s received a plethora of awards and also has 19 honorary doctorates. So, ya, she’s kind of amazing.
Dr. Sylvia Earle
There’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard of Dr. Earle. She has been a field researcher, government official, director of corporate and nonprofits, author, and lecturer over her decades as a key player in the marine science community. She’s written a number of books (that are shockingly good reads), is a National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence, and has a super poignant TED talk. Dr. Earle was dubbed a “living legend” by the Library of Congress and “Hero for the Planet” by Time magazine. In 1970, she was the captain of the very first all-female research team to live underwater. Those in her field as have also recognized Dr. Earle as “one of the most experienced, most versatile, and most intrepid divers in the history of underwater exploration.”
Rachel Carson
Maybe you’ve heard of a little book, written in 1962, called Silent Spring? It’s no big deal, it just changed the way the U.S. government and the whole world viewed the environment and led to a ban on pesticides that continues today. Before her days as the author of one of the most influential environmental science books of all time, Carson was a marine biologist working for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. She wrote a number of articles, books, and pamphlets that gained her recognition as a talented naturalist and science writer while she was still working for the government. She spoke out against the chemical industry and certain government officials despite being criticized as an “alarmist.” She even testified before congress, calling for policies to protect human health as well as the environment. Her book and her actions resulted in a presidential commission that endorsed her findings and led to the shaping of an environmental consciousness.
Dr. Eugenie Clark
Also known as the “Shark Lady” (which is probably one of the coolest nicknames, ever), Dr. Clark was a pioneer in her field. A supremely talented diver, she worked tirelessly to educate people about sharks in order to improve their reputation and people’s perception of the species. She also founded the famous Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida. She was once quoted saying “I never let being a woman — even as a young girl — stop me from trying to do something I really wanted to do, especially if it concerned fishes or the underwater world.” She also dove right up to her death in 2014; her last dive was when she was 92 years old!
We owe a lot to these women. Not just for their contributions to marine science, but for being amazing women to look up to!