It was a beautiful experience tonight presenting the
@peterbenchleyoceanawards to
@diva_amon at the
@montereybayaquarium (pic 2 is with Kate Streather, Researcher for Ocean with David Attenborough and Blue Planet III who was also an awardee). I'm pleased to provide my remarks here:
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s an absolute delight and tremendous privilege to be involved in honoring Diva Amon this evening, to hold the door OPEN for her! **As a fellow island girl and submersible diver, I’ve been following this young woman’s career for many years, and it’s a shame that it was only last year that we met in person in Nice at a UN Ocean Decade side event.
**But there are certain people that you feel as though you “know” them anyway, especially within the smaller circles of both exploration AND science, within the science of the DEEPER parts of the ocean, and within the practice of DEFENDING that deep.
**Sometimes in defense of the deep we’re called into worlds that are not our own, that are not our comfort zones. But Diva has moved into, around, and through all of these spaces with truly beautiful, almost bewildering alacrity and skill, from doing the hard science, to using that science to inform policy, all the way to answering the call of “Hollywood” as it were, where I hope most of you know of her work as a National Geographic Explorer and in the Disney+/NatGeo series Welcome to Earth, where she, among many things, kept actor Will Smith from “losing his cojones,” 😂 as the depths closed in around them!
**The science AND exploration mantle is often precarious, as there’s even MORE pressure to clearly communicate what you’ve seen and/or measured, how you felt, and why it matters… to you, … to your audience, … to the entire world.
I can’t think of anyone who has accomplished this with more joy, clarity, conviction, and courage than Diva.
**This is why in the past she has EARNED many, MANY top honors, among them a Pew Fellowship.
And this is why now, she is truly worthy of this “Oscar for the ocean,” the Peter Benchley Award for Excellence in Science and Exploration.
Congratulations DIVA!
