For as long as Dr Diva Amon can remember, the ocean has always been there.
Long before she knew the language of marine biology, long before deep-sea expeditions and research vessels, it was simply a part of her childhood. Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, Amon remembers feeling like the ocean was her “playmate” as she spent much of her time at the beach and in the water, exploring a natural world that seemed to offer an endless supply of things to discover. Before cable television and the internet could transform how children encountered the wider world, for Amon, nature itself was her entertainment.
Last Tuesday, Amon was the International Women’s Forum of Trinidad and Tobago’s (IWFTT) Emerging Leader Award recipient. Amon, along with Prof Christine Carrington, the Inspirational Leader Awardee and Roberta Clarke, the Inspirational Champion of Women Awardee, were toasted at a Gala at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain. President Christine Kangaloo and IWFTT president Lisa Agard were also in attendance.
Dr Diva Amon is a marine biologist who focuses on the deep ocean and high seas—remarkable and vast parts of the planet that few humans have ever seen—and on how human activities are reshaping these fragile ecosystems. She holds a PhD from the University of Southampton and has appointments at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and The University of the West Indies. Amon is also a co-founder and director of SpeSeas, the Trinidad and Tobago-based non-profit dedicated to marine science, education and advocacy. As a National Geographic Explorer, she has also brought those hidden worlds via television shows, descending into the deep sea with international audiences.
Yet for all her global education and the recognition that has followed her work, home remains central to Amon’s story. Her first deep-sea expedition took place in 2010, shortly after she completed her Master’s degree and returned home. At the time, her Masters supervisor was involved in an expedition aboard the Royal Research Ship James Cook, which was leaving from Trinidad, heading towards the Cayman Trench. Amon joined the team of scientists for three weeks at sea, with an ambitious objective: to locate the world’s deepest hydrothermal vents. They found them…and more. Surrounding those vents were underwater species that had never before been documented. For a young scientist who had spent years “driven by curiosity, boldness and a deep love for the ocean’s hidden worlds,” this was the kind of reward she could’ve only dreamt of, which she still considers today one of her career highlights.
Her hope is for more researchers and scientists from the region to have similar experiences. Deep-sea science requires expensive ships, specialised equipment, submersibles and teams of highly trained scientists, putting it beyond the reach of many people and countries. The field itself has historically lacked diversity. Amon has found herself in some of the most isolated environments on Earth, surrounded by scientists who, in many cases, do not look or sound like her, and who do not come from the Small Island Developing States whose futures are so closely tied to the ocean. “It can be so isolating,” she says, but acknowledges that the landscape is changing, however, acutely aware of her own role in helping to change it.
Beyond her work as a researcher, Amon advises governments and international bodies on ocean science and governance, work that has taken on greater urgency as the ocean continues to be central to conversations about climate change. During a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Hawaii, she joined expeditions into little-explored parts of the Pacific, where scientists were still trying to establish what lived in these remote ecosystems and how they functioned. But there was another question hanging over the research. Some of the areas being explored could eventually be opened to deep-sea mining, meaning that the scientists were not simply documenting an unknown world for the sake of discovery; they were working to establish a scientific baseline for a place that would one day be fundamentally changed. What they found was significant because without that knowledge, there would be little basis for understanding what might be lost.
“This is a race against the clock,” she says, “science can’t just be about science for science’s sake. It has to inform policy, bring awareness to the public and enable decision-makers to act.” She has been a key authority in international conversations involving the United Nations, the International Seabed Authority and other global forums, where she advocates for ocean governance. She seeks to also amplify the voices of countries and communities that have historically had less power in shaping those decisions. For a country like Trinidad and Tobago, she argues, that conversation is not abstract. In our region, as island nations surrounded by an ocean on which our food, livelihoods and future depend, there is a pipeline from research to policy to action that is critical.
Now almost two decades after her first expedition, Amon has had moments that have come full circle. Perhaps the clearest expression of that belief came this July, when Amon led the Deep Wonders expedition from Trinidad and Tobago. It was a particularly significant undertaking not only because it remains difficult to bring this level of deep-sea research to a Caribbean country, but because Amon was not simply joining someone else’s expedition; she was leading it. Sixteen years after her first expedition as a young scientist leaving from T&T’s shores, this time, the scientists aboard were students of her own.
For Amon, the significance of the expedition went beyond the personal. It demonstrated something that she has always articulated: that Trinidad and Tobago has the talent and capacity to participate in globally significant deep-sea science. Describing the expedition as “precedent-setting in global science”, the team collected samples and data that will be housed in T&T and used to better inform ocean stewardship. The message was similarly important as the science - that we in the Caribbean can do the work for ourselves.
Another pivotal career milestone was in 2022, when she appeared alongside Will Smith in a series called Welcome to Earth, which introduced the depths of the ocean to millions of viewers, but also placed a Caribbean woman in a space where they have been under-represented.
Keen to encourage young scientists, Amon remembers the doubts that can accompany choosing a career in environmental science. “I remember people telling me I would be poor forever,” she recalls, “questioning whether what I wanted was a viable path.” But her work has become more than viable; it is critical, urgent and significant. With the planet facing mounting environmental pressures, the need for scientists, conservationists, communicators and policymakers has never been greater. For the young Trinidadian who is wondering whether a life spent studying the natural world is worth pursuing, Amon says that “ if you’re considering a career in environment and conservation, there has never been a more pressing time in history than now. Our planet is in crisis, and we need people more than ever.”
