Robert Ballard — American Scientist born on June 30, 1942,

Robert Duane Ballard is a former United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology of shipwrecks. He is most known for the discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1998. He discovered the wreck of John F. Kennedy's PT-109 in 2002 and visited Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who saved its crew. Ballard leads ocean exploration on E/V Nautilus... (wikipedia)

So, you know, I think the age of exploration is just beginning, not ending, on our planet.
If you compare NASA's annual budget to explore the heavens, that one year budget would fund NOAA's budget to explore the oceans for 1,600 years.
Follow your own passion - not your parents', not your teachers' - yours.
Well, when I was a kid, I grew up in San Diego next to the ocean. The ocean was my friend - my best friend.
I am an underwater explorer, not a treasure hunter.