1970: Earle was awarded the U.S. Department of Interior Conservation Service Award and was named Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year.[16]
1980: Earle received the Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award.[16]
1981: Earle was ordained as a Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark by the Prince of the Netherlands.[17]
1986: Earle tied the world solo dive depth record in a sub (and setting the record for a woman), going 100 m in Deep Ocean Engineering's "Deep Rover", tying the record set by her then husband Graham Hawkes.[7][18]
1990: Earle received the Society of Women Geographers gold medal.[19]
1991: An expert on the impact of oil spills, Earle was called upon to lead several research trips during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 to determine environmental damage caused by Iraq's destruction of Kuwaiti oil wells. She also received the American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award that year.[20]
1996: Earle received the Lindbergh Foundation award[21] and the Explorers Club Medal.[16]
1997: Sylvia Earle was honored with the 1997 SeaKeeper Award at The International SeaKeepers Society's Bal de la Mer.[22]
In 1998 Earle became a UN Global 500 Laureate[23] and National Wildlife Federation Conservationist of the Year.[24]
In 2000, Earle was honored as a new member of the National Women's Hall of Fame.[25]
2004: Earle received the 2004 International Banksia Award,[26] the Richard Hopper Day Memorial Medal from the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences and the Barnard College medal.[27]
In 2005 Earle received the John P. McGovern Science and Society Award from Sigma Xi.[28]