ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jill Heinerth - Cave diver
Jill Heinerth explores underwater caves deep inside the earth.

Why you should listen

More people have walked on the moon than have been to some of the places that Jill's exploration has taken her right here on the earth. From the most dangerous technical dives deep inside underwater caves, to searching for never-before-seen ecosystems inside giant Antarctic icebergs, to the lawless desert border area between Egypt and Libya while a civil war raged around her, Jill's curiosity and passion about our watery planet is the driving force in her life.

Jill’s accolades include induction into the Explorer's Club and the inaugural class of the Women Diver's Hall of Fame. She received the Wyland ICON Award, an honor she shares with several of her underwater heroes including Jacques Cousteau, Robert Ballard and Dr. Sylvia Earle. She was named a "Living Legend" by Sport Diver Magazine and selected as Scuba Diving Magazine's "Sea Hero of the Year 2012."

In recognition of her lifetime achievement, Jill was awarded the inaugural Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration. Established by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in 2013, the medal recognizes singular achievements and the pursuit of excellence by an outstanding Canadian explorer.

More profile about the speaker
Jill Heinerth | Speaker | TED.com
TEDYouth 2015

Jill Heinerth: The mysterious world of underwater caves

Jill Heinerth: O misterioso mundo das cavernas submarinas

Filmed:
1,921,342 views

A mergulhadora de cavernas Jill Heinerth explora os caminhos submarinos que percorrem nosso planeta. Trabalhando com biólogos, climatólogos e arqueólogos, Heinerth revela os mistérios de formas de vida que habitam alguns dos lugares mais remotos da terra e ajuda os pesquisadores a destravar a história das mudanças climáticas. Nesta pequena palestra, mergulhe sob as ondas e explore as maravilhas do espaço interior.
- Cave diver
Jill Heinerth explores underwater caves deep inside the earth. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
I'm an underwater explorer,
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Sou uma exploradora submarina,
00:17
more specifically a cave diver.
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melhor, uma mergulhadora de caverna.
00:21
I wanted to be an astronaut
when I was a little kid,
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Queria ser astronauta em criança
00:23
but growing up in Canada as a young girl,
that wasn't really available to me.
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mas vivendo no Canadá era inviável
Acontece que sabemos mais do espaço
00:29
But as it turns out,
we know a lot more about space
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00:33
than we do about the underground waterways
coursing through our planet,
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do que os cursos de água subterrâneos
que atravessam o planeta,
00:37
the very lifeblood of Mother Earth.
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a essência da vida da Mãe Terra.
Entao, decidi fazer uma coisa notável.
00:41
So I decided to do something
that was even more remarkable.
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00:45
Instead of exploring outer space,
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Em vez de explorar o espaço exterior
decidi explorar as maravilhas
do espaço interior.
00:47
I wanted to explore
the wonders of inner space.
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00:51
Now, a lot of people will tell you
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Hoje, muitas pessoas dirão
que mergulho nas cavernas talvez
seja uma das proezas mais perigosas.
00:53
that cave diving is perhaps
one of the most dangerous endeavors.
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Quero dizer, imagine você aqui nessa sala,
00:58
I mean, imagine yourself
here in this room,
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01:01
if you were suddenly
plunged into blackness,
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sendo de repente mergulhado
numa escuridão,
com a ùnica missão
de encontrar a saída,
01:04
with your only job to find the exit,
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01:06
sometimes swimming
through these large spaces,
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algumas vezes nadando
nos amplos espaços
01:09
and at other times
crawling beneath the seats,
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outras vezes rastejando
embaixo dos assentos,
01:12
following a thin guideline,
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seguindo apenas um pequeno guia,
só esperando o suporte de vida
enviar a próxima respiração.
01:15
just waiting for the life support
to provide your very next breath.
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Então, este è o meu lugar de trabalho.
01:19
Well, that's my workplace.
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Mas o que quero ensinar hoje
01:22
But what I want to teach you today
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01:24
is that our world
is not one big solid rock.
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é que nosso mundo não é
uma grande pedra sólida.
01:29
It's a whole lot more like a sponge.
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É muito mais parecida com uma esponja.
01:31
I can swim through a lot of the pores
in our earth's sponge,
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Posso nadar através de muitos poros
na nossa esponja terrestre
mas aonde eu não posso ir,
01:35
but where I can't,
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01:37
other life-forms and other materials
can make that journey without me.
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outras formas de vida e outros materiais
podem fazer essa jornada sem mim.
E minha voz é a única
que vai ensinar a você
01:42
And my voice is the one
that's going to teach you
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01:45
about the inside of Mother Earth.
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sobre o interior da Mãe Terra.
01:50
There was no guidebook available to me
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Não existia nenhum guia disponível
01:53
when I decided to be the first person
to cave dive inside Antarctic icebergs.
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quando decidi ser a primeira mergulhadora
de caverna nos icebergs da Antártida.
01:59
In 2000, this was the largest
moving object on the planet.
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Em 2000, eles eram os maiores objetos
que se moviam no planeta.
Eles se desprendiam
da plataforma de gelo Ross,
02:04
It calved off the Ross Ice Shelf,
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02:06
and we went down there
to explore ice edge ecology
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fomos lá para explorar
a ecologia da borda de gelo
02:09
and search for life-forms beneath the ice.
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e procurar formas de vida debaixo do gelo.
02:12
We use a technology called rebreathers.
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Usamos uma tecnologia
chamada "rebreathers",
02:15
It's an awful lot like the same technology
that is used for space walks.
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parecida com a tecnologia usada
para andar no espaço.
Essa tecnologia nos permite ir mais fundo
02:19
This technology enables us to go deeper
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do que imaginávamos há dez anos.
02:22
than we could've imagined
even 10 years ago.
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usamos gases exóticos,
02:25
We use exotic gases,
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e fazemos missões de mais
de 20 horas debaixo d'água.
02:27
and we can make missions
even up to 20 hours long underwater.
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02:33
I work with biologists.
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Trabalho com biólogos.
Acontece que cavernas são repositórios
de fantásticas formas de vida.
02:35
It turns out that caves
are repositories of amazing life-forms,
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Espécies que nunca soubemos ter existido.
02:39
species that we never knew existed before.
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Muitas dessas formas de vida
vivem de forma inusual,
02:43
Many of these life-forms
live in unusual ways.
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02:47
They have no pigment
and no eyes in many cases,
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muitas vezes não possuem
pigmentos e olhos,
02:51
and these animals
are also extremely long-lived.
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e esses animais vivem por longos anos.
02:55
In fact, animals swimming
in these caves today
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Na verdade, animais que nadam
nessas cavernas hoje em dia
são idênticos aos dos registros fósseis
02:59
are identical in the fossil record
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que antecedem a extinção dos dinossauros.
03:01
that predates the extinction
of the dinosaurs.
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Então imaginem: eles são como pequenos
dinossauros nadadores.
03:04
So imagine that: these are
like little swimming dinosaurs.
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03:08
What can they teach us
about evolution and survival?
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O que eles podem nos ensinar
sobre evolução e sobrevivência?
03:13
When we look at an animal
like this remipede swimming in the jar,
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Quando olhamos um animal como
essa remipedia nadando no aquário...
03:17
he has giant fangs with venom.
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Ela tem gigantescas presas venenosas.
03:20
He can actually attack something
40 times his size and kill it.
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Pode atacar algo 40 vezes maior e matá-lo.
Se ela fosse do tamanho de um gato,
03:24
If he were the size of a cat,
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03:26
he'd be the most dangerous
thing on our planet.
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seria a criatura mais perigosa do planeta.
03:29
And these animals live
in remarkably beautiful places,
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E esses animais vivem
em lugares maravilhosos.
E em alguns casos cavernas como essa,
que são muito novas.
03:33
and in some cases,
caves like this, that are very young,
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03:37
yet the animals are ancient.
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contudo, esses animais são milenares.
03:39
How did they get there?
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Como eles conseguiram chegar lá?
03:41
I also work with physicists,
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Também trabalho com físicos.
03:44
and they're interested oftentimes
in global climate change.
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E eles são muitas vezes interessados
nas mudanças climáticas.
03:47
They can take rocks within the caves,
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Eles pegam as pedras nas cavernas
03:50
and they can slice them
and look at the layers within with rocks,
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fatiam e observam suas camadas rochosas,
03:53
much like the rings of a tree,
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como os anéis das arvores,
03:55
and they can count back in history
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e assim conseguem remontar
a história e apreender
03:57
and learn about the climate on our planet
at very different times.
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sobre clima do planeta em várias eras.
04:00
The red that you see in this photograph
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O vermelho que você vê nessa fotografia
04:03
is actually dust from the Sahara Desert.
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é o pó do deserto do Saara.
04:06
So it's been picked up by wind,
blown across the Atlantic Ocean.
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Foi levado pelo vento
e atravessou o oceano Atlântico.
Neste caso, o pó caiu nas Ilhas Ábaco,
situadas nas Bahamas
04:10
It's rained down in this case
on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas.
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e foi absorvido através do solo,
04:15
It soaks in through the ground
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04:16
and deposits itself
in the rocks within these caves.
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indo se depositar nos rochedos
dentro dessas cavernas.
04:20
And when we look back in the layers
of these rocks, we can find times
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E quando olhamos
as camadas dos rochedos,
achamos períodos em que o clima
na Terra era muito, muito seco,
04:24
when the climate
was very, very dry on earth,
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04:27
and we can go back
many hundreds of thousands of years.
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e podemos voltar
a muitos milhares de anos.
Paleoclimatologistas estão interessados
04:32
Paleoclimatologists are also interested
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04:34
in where the sea level stands were
at other times on earth.
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em saber onde o nível do mar
se situava em outras épocas
04:38
Here in Bermuda, my team and I embarked
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Aqui nas Bermudas,
eu e meu grupo embarcamos
04:40
on the deepest manned dives
ever conducted in the region,
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em uma operação de mergulho
mais profundo, nunca conduzida antes,
04:43
and we were looking for places
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e estávamos procurando lugares
04:45
where the sea level
used to lap up against the shoreline,
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onde o nível do mar alcançava a costa,
04:48
many hundreds of feet
below current levels.
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centenas de metros abaixo
dos níveis das correntes.
04:52
I also get to work with paleontologists
and archaeologists.
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Também trabalho com paleontólogos
e arqueólogos.
04:56
In places like Mexico,
in the Bahamas, and even in Cuba,
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Em ugares como México,
Bahamas, e mesmo Cuba,
estudamos as reminiscências culturais
e restos humanos nas cavernas.
05:00
we're looking at cultural remains
and also human remains in caves,
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e ambos nos ensinam muito
05:05
and they tell us a lot
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05:06
about some of the earliest
inhabitants of these regions.
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sobre os primeiros habitantes
dessas regiões.
05:10
But my very favorite project of all
was over 15 years ago,
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Mas meu projeto favorito
aconteceu há 15 anos,
fazia parte de um grupo que elaborou
o primeiro mapa tridimensional,
05:14
when I was a part of the team
that made the very first
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05:16
accurate, three-dimensional map
of a subterranean surface.
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da superfície subterrânea.
Esse aparato que estou
dirigindo na caverna
05:20
This device that I'm
driving through the cave
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05:22
was actually creating
a three-dimensional model as we drove it.
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foi criando um modelo tridimensional
enquanto dirigíamos.
Usamos também um rádio de baixa frequência
05:27
We also used ultra low frequency radio
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05:29
to broadcast back to the surface
our exact position within the cave.
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para transmitir à superfície nossa
posição exata dentro da caverna.
05:34
So I swam under houses and businesses
and bowling alleys and golf courses,
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Nadei por baixo de casas, escritórios,
boliches, campos de golfe,
05:39
and even under a Sonny's BBQ Restaurant,
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e mesmo por baixo de uma churrascaria.
05:43
Pretty remarkable, and what that taught me
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Fora de série, e o que isso me ensinou
foi que tudo que fazemos
na superfície da Terra
05:45
was that everything we do
on the surface of our earth
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nos retorna para bebermos.
05:48
will be returned to us to drink.
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05:50
Our water planet is not just
rivers, lakes and oceans,
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A água do nosso planeta
não é somente rios, lagos e oceanos,
05:55
but it's this vast network of groundwater
that knits us all together.
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mas essa vasta rede de águas
subterrâneas de que dependemos.
06:00
It's a shared resource
from which we all drink.
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É um recurso compartilhado
do qual todos nós bebemos.
06:04
And when we can understand
our human connections with our groundwater
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E ao entendermos a conexão humana
com as águas subterrâneas
06:08
and all of our water resources
on this planet,
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e todos os recursos aquáticos do planeta
06:11
then we'll be working on the problem
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aí estaremos trabalhando no problema
06:12
that's probably the most important
issue of this century.
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que é provavelmente a questão
mais importante deste século.
06:17
So I never got to be that astronaut
that I always wanted to be,
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Pois é, nunca consegui ser
a astronauta que quis,
06:20
but this mapping device,
designed by Dr. Bill Stone, will be.
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mas esse aparato mapeador
desenhado pelo Dr. Bill Stone, será!
Ele está modificado.
06:24
It's actually morphed.
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06:25
It's now a self-swimming autonomous robot,
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Agora, é um robô nadador autônomo,
06:28
artificially intelligent,
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inteligência artificial,
06:30
and its ultimate goal
is to go to Jupiter's moon Europa
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e sua meta final é ir
à Europa, a lua de Júpiter
06:34
and explore oceans beneath
the frozen surface of that body.
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e explorar os oceanos
sob sua superfície congelada.
06:39
And that's pretty amazing.
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E isso é fantástico.
(Aplausos)
06:42
(Applause)
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Translated by Maria Helena Giordano
Reviewed by Wanderley Jesus

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jill Heinerth - Cave diver
Jill Heinerth explores underwater caves deep inside the earth.

Why you should listen

More people have walked on the moon than have been to some of the places that Jill's exploration has taken her right here on the earth. From the most dangerous technical dives deep inside underwater caves, to searching for never-before-seen ecosystems inside giant Antarctic icebergs, to the lawless desert border area between Egypt and Libya while a civil war raged around her, Jill's curiosity and passion about our watery planet is the driving force in her life.

Jill’s accolades include induction into the Explorer's Club and the inaugural class of the Women Diver's Hall of Fame. She received the Wyland ICON Award, an honor she shares with several of her underwater heroes including Jacques Cousteau, Robert Ballard and Dr. Sylvia Earle. She was named a "Living Legend" by Sport Diver Magazine and selected as Scuba Diving Magazine's "Sea Hero of the Year 2012."

In recognition of her lifetime achievement, Jill was awarded the inaugural Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration. Established by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in 2013, the medal recognizes singular achievements and the pursuit of excellence by an outstanding Canadian explorer.

More profile about the speaker
Jill Heinerth | Speaker | TED.com