Not only who am I, but who are we? And where are we going? It's the "we." It's the social connections that are special to human beings.

We must protect our ocean as if our lives depend upon it, because they do.

Photosynthetic organisms in the sea yield most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, take up and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, shape planetary chemistry, and hold the planet steady.

We are all together in this, we are all together in this single living ecosystem called planet earth.

We need to respect the oceans and take care of them as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.

Historically, girls have not been encouraged to be scientists, to be explorers, and there's a social kind of constraint, of course. Having the responsibility, a disproportionate part of the responsibility, for caring for families, caring for children. I know this challenge from firsthand experience because I have three children and four grandsons.And some of the time I have spent as a scientist and as an explorer has meant choosing to not be with my children and grandchildren as much as I might otherwise have done had I not been a scientist, an explorer.

All through college, I had frequently been the only girl in a science class - which wasn't such a bad deal.