Noted oceanographer Sylvia Earle is one of the three 2009 TED prize winners. The three winners are awarded the opportunity to share “one wish to change the world,” along with $100,000 each to fund the pursuit of that wish.

Here is Earle’s wish:

I wish you would use all means at your disposal — the films, the expeditions, the web! — to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.

Earle said she did not know how much of the oceans need to be protected, but that she said it’s certainly more than the less-than-1-percent of the oceans currently under some governmental protection. She noted the technological advances that have been made to solve the energy crisis before adding, “but nothing will matter if we fail to protect the oceans. Our fate and the ocean’s are one.”

See the full list of 2009 TED speakers.