Oceanography is an interdisciplinary science that combines chemistry, biology, physics and geology in studying oceans, and oceanographers aim to explain how, despite the fact that they cover most of the planet’s surface, they contain most of its water, carbon and biomass, the oceans do not work alone, but together with the continents, the atmosphere and the ice-cover, forming a living working machine.
The work of these professionals has both scientific and practical goals. The oceans are a threat to human health, if we consider that they generate and fuel storms, even hurricanes. At the same time, they are an incommensurable source of food, water supply, oxygen and natural pharmaceutics.
This makes oceanography an important and interesting science and turns oceanographers into respected and admired professionals, whose work and activity is highly valued around the world. Here are just a few names that illustrate this assessment and a brief overview of their achievements in the field of oceanography.
William Beebe
Inventor of the bathysphere together with Otis Barton, he descended to the record depth of 3,028 feet in the waters around the Bermuda Islands, remaining here for only 3 minutes. During this famous dive, the explorer described extravagant creatures and water voids that seemed to host no life forms to an assistant through headphones. He discovered and described hundreds of new life forms, but received credit for it only years later.
Sylvia Earle
Her achievements brought her nicknames like “The Sturgeon General” or “Her Deepness”. She explored amazing underwater habitats and performed the deepest solo dive in the world in 1979, descending no less than 1,250 feet off the Hawaiian coast, in a pressurized garment.
Robert D. Ballard
Robert Ballard became famous for discovering the wreck of the Titanic, the unsinkable ship that landed on the bottom of the ocean in 1912, ending the lives of 1,500 passengers and crew members. However, Ballard’s achievements do not stop here: he was the first oceanographer to dive off the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in a submersible, and, while exploring the Galápagos Islands area sea floor, at huge depths around the hydrothermal vents, he discovered new life forms.
Of course, there are many other oceanographers and adventurers worth mentioning for their amazing achievements and discoveries, without which oceanography would not have reached this stage: James Cook, Charles Darwin, Jacques Cousteau, Jacques Piccard or James Cameron, to name just a few.
