Les Burke Named 2025 Sea Hero of the Year

A portrait of Les Burke

Courtesy Michael R. Cuesta

Les Burke has been named our 2025 Sea Hero of the Year, and there’s no wonder as to why. A U.S. Navy veteran and founder of the nonprofit Jr Scientists in the Sea (JSIS), he has dedicated his life to educating the youngest members of society about our most precious resource: our ocean.

“With PADI at the forefront of recreational and ecological diving, it is truly an honor to receive this recognition,” Burke says.

A conversation with Jacques Cousteau in 1985 sparked Burke’s passion for ocean conservation and exploration. He was only the eighth Black diver to complete the Navy’s deep sea salvage school. After over three decades in the Navy, he retired and turned all his attention to exposing marginalized and underprivileged youth to aquatic stewardship. As he says, “conservation begins at education.”

With JSIS, ocean education incorporates scuba certification and specialty courses, including underwater research methodology. Students take their new skills into the field to participate in surveys, environmental restoration, marine archaeology and ROV exploration.

So, what’s next for Burke?

“After over 40 years of being in, on and under the water, a friend told me I should stop working and enjoy something I love,” he says. “I told her I’m not ‘working’—and this is what I love. My kids dive, my grandkids dive and every member of JSIS is helping to renew our oceans and estuarine systems. What more is there?”

PADI CEO and president Drew Richardson congratulated Burke on his honor: “On behalf of the global PADI organization, I thank Les Burke for his honorable service to his country as a U.S. Navy Diver for three decades and for committing his life to introducing youth to the sea,” Richardson said. “We are all inspired by Les’ remarkable drive to change the lives of young people who may not otherwise have had the chance to experience the underwater world and become the next generation’s stewards of the ocean. We salute Les in receiving this well-deserved honor and truly see him as a hero of the sea.”