By Mary O’KEEFE

March is Women’s History Month and March 8 was International Women’s Day. Every year we highlight women doing amazing things to remind people that women have, are and can do amazing things outside of their “traditional roles.” Part of me hates the fact that we have to have a specific month that highlights women when women’s achievements should just be common knowledge but we are not there yet. And I love hearing about women who are living their best lives as well as helping others around us.

I gave birth to two powerful, thoughtful, caring and strong women. My daughters have fought the stereotypes of their professions by being exactly who they are so I asked, as a resource, why not go to them to find women they admire. So for the next couple of weeks I will be sharing some of those inspirational women.

My youngest daughter has always been drawn to the sea. We would wake up super early on school days, drive to Redondo Beach, have breakfast as the sun rose then drive back to the Crescenta Valley for school. The ocean is life for her so that in college her going into environmental science was not a surprise; neither is the fact that she is a diver and loves teaching others to dive. She is part of two non-profits, California Greenworks, whose tagline is “Greening Communities One Neighborhood at a Time,” and Bleu World whose mission statement reads, “Our mission is to build a network of ocean changemakers with a passion for conservation and exploration.”
So it will not surprise you that she derives inspiration from a legendary woman diver.

An article by the Australian National Maritime Museum titled “Her Deepness: Dr. Sylvia Earle” starts out like this: “Sylvia Earle has lived underwater for a week, walked the sea floor at a (record breaking) depth of 381 meters and has led over 50 ocean expeditions.”

At the time of the article, 2019, she was 84 years old and was/is still diving and exploring.

“She’s earned endless awards – including 29 honorary doctorates – and her adventures have sent her across the world. Over her long career, she has dived in the deepest parts of the ocean, lectured in 90 countries and even fought off an angry shark. As a female marine scientist in the 1960s, Sylvia’s early career was often challenging, but her pioneering spirit and endless love for the ocean has seen her become the world’s most famous oceanographer,” the article continued.

As I researched Dr. Sylvia Earle I realized why my daughter refers to her as “Science Gidget.” First of all, the fact that my kid is a fan of “Gidget,” both the 1950s Sandra Dee films and 1960s Sally Field sitcom about a young girl who surfed, delights me to no end. Generations today may not understand how important Gidget was to young girls in the ’60s, but every surfing movie seemed to have the girl admiring the buff boy on the surfboard or they would be on the surfboard with the boy but never surfing on their own. From the beginning Gidget wanted to learn how to surf, although in the movie it was a lot about Moondoggie, her love interest. Sally Field’s character was feisty, defiant and wanted to learn how to surf on her own. That didn’t stop her from admiring all the Moondoggie surfers but she was just fine on her own.

Sylvia was creating waves in the ’60s in her own way. She got her Ph.D. in botany, married and had kids but that never stopped her from exploring. She too never let the stereotype define her.

“In the summer of 1964, I received an invitation to go on an expedition, and it turned out to be one of those things that changed my life forever. … I was asked to join a scientific team aboard the National Science Foundation’s research vessel Anton Bruun for a six-week voyage to the Indian Ocean and other places. It was not the usual thing for women to go off on expeditions like that in those days – a few other women had done what I was about to do, and had had a terrible time because they were either harassed or kidded to death,” she stated in an article in The New Yorker, “her Deepness: Sylvia Earle’s underwater explorations,” published in 1989.
It is important to remember that up until the 1950s, research into marine biology was really done by finding any evidence that had washed up onshore and/or by dredging or dragging nets behind boats. The world of scuba diving was very new. Not long after Sylvia had begun her graduate studies Jacques-Yves Cousteau and
Émile Gagnan developed the Aqua-Lung or scuba equipment. [“Scuba” stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.] Sylvia became one of the first in marine science to use scuba equipment.

During the ’60s, Cousteau supervised the creation of successful underwater habitats where participants could live a life like Capt. Nemo. In 1968, The Man-in-Sea Project, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, was looking for applicants. Sylvia applied and was accepted. She joined a team of scientists in the Bahamas and descended in a vehicle called Deep Diver, designed by Edwin A. Link. Deep Diver was the first modern submersible with a lockout chamber, permitting divers to leave and return to the vehicle underwater. Sylvia became the first woman to lock out of a submersible. Oh by the way she set another record too; she was four months pregnant at the time. She checked with her doctor and he said it would be safe; she gave birth to her daughter the following July.

She has set records over and over again, and not just because she is female. Although there were plenty of those glass ceiling shattering moments including being the first woman to serve as the chief scientist at NOAA from 1990 to 1992 and in 1998 she was the first female explorer in residence for the National Geographic Society. She also holds the record for the deepest walk on the sea floor. And oh yeah, she even has an Aurora Expedition ship named after her.

“When divers and submersibles go underwater, onlookers hear a ‘plunk’ and see ripples in the water,” said Sylvia in an article from CNN Health “6 healthy habits revealed by a ‘living legend’ and globe-trotting explorer” in December 2023. “What they’re not seeing is this vast and magical universe that human existence depends on. The ocean is 97% of the biosphere. If we don’t take care of the ocean, nothing else matters in the end.”

Yep, I can see exactly why my youngest admires this woman and strives to honor her in her own work.

or information on California Greenworks visit https://californiagreenworks.org. For information on Bleu World visit https://bleuworld.org.

Our weather will be windy and warm. We are in a high wind watch from 1 a.m. to
1 p.m. today, Thursday.

The strongest winds should be felt from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. today with gusts in the foothills from 35 to 40 miles per hour and in the valley from 20 to 30 mph, according to Rich Thompson, meteorologist at NOAA.

These are Santa Ana winds so we should see some warmer temperatures with highs in the 70s from Sunday through Tuesday. Although there is not a lot of rain expected there could be some light showers on Saturday.