Marine biologist Sylvia Earle has been recognized by the Library of Congress as a “Living Legend,” named the first of Time magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet,” and is frequently introduced as Her Deepness. For more than 50 years, she has explored the far-flung high seas, meeting strange, otherworldly creatures that live only in the great depths.

Earle got her Ph.D. in phycology, or the study of algae, in 1966, at a time when women were largely discouraged from pursuing higher education. She went on to become one of the first to work as an “aquanaut” in 1970, conducting research 50 feet underwater off the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of the federally funded Tektite II project. She was also the first