Who is Jacques-Yves Cousteau?

Anyone who has watched public television during the 1960s and 1970s knew Jacques Cousteau as that very entertaining and very special hero who brought undersea exploration into our living rooms. An environmentalist without peer, he showed us a world that we previously could just imagine. His heroic ventures are similar to space exploration: a combination of technology and sheer bravery bringing the sub oceanic world to everyman.

He is even more our hero because he inspired generations to study and care for the sea, and to work to protect it for future generations. Some of his finest work revolved around the technology of sea exploration, but his most important effort, the reason he is our hero, is that he was a genuine environmentalist with all the world at heart.

What made him Marine Biologist?

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was truly a man of the sea. His scientific breakthroughs in diving technology and his tireless fight against the pollution of the oceans made him a hero to a generation of future explorers and environmental activists. His voyages on his ship Calypso became the subject of books, television specials and even a hit song by John Denver.

Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910, in Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac, France, to Daniel and Elizabeth Cousteau. He began his lifelong love for the sea in 1930 when he was admitted to France’s Ecole Navale (Naval Academy). He became a gunnery officer in the navy and began conducting diving experiments. His first innovation in underwater technology was the development of a better type of underwater goggles in 1936, thought to be the precursors of modern diving masks.

A year later, Cousteau married Simone Melchior and would have two sons with her: Jean-Michel and Phillippe. Both would go on to work with their father on his underwater expeditions.

Cousteau fought in World War II, but also found time to experiment with devices allowing divers to breathe underwater. Two almost-fatal accidents with rebreathers had convinced him there had to be a better and safer way to free humans from the air lines that divers traditionally used. Along with Emile Gagnan, he developed the first commercially successful diving system in 1943. Called SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) or the Aqua-Lung, the device used compressed air in tanks strapped to the diver’s back and a regulator to breathe through. The device would revolutionize underwater work.

Cousteau began using his Aqua-Lung while still serving with the French navy in World War II. He discovered a way to use the devices for clearing mines and also began exploring underwater wrecks. Looking for new ways to show what his invention could do, Cousteau and fellow diver Frederic Dumas explored one of the deepest known underground rivers in the world. Because of a mistake in filling their tanks, the two divers almost died due to carbon monoxide poisoning. In 1967, Cousteau returned to the river where he almost met his death and sought its origin using a remote-controlled minisub called the Telenaute.

Cousteau’s achievements came to the attention of Loel Guinness, president of the French Oceanographic Campaigns. Guinness had bought a decommissioned minesweeper, the Calypso, and leased the ship to Cousteau for one franc a year. During the next four decades, Calypso and Cousteau became synonymous with cutting-edge exploration of the seas. Cousteau encouraged a collegial atmosphere on the ship, with no hierarchy of officers and crew (although Cousteau was addressed by the honorific Captain).

Cousteau’s early films of his explorations won three Academy Awards (for The Silent World, The Golden Fish and World Without Sun). In 1968, Cousteau created The Undersea World of Jacque Cousteau, which became one of the most popular television documentary series in history.

At the same time, Cousteau had not given up on his efforts to improve the technology for underwater exploration. He pioneered new techniques in underwater photography in the 1950s, and in 1963, along with Jean de Wouters, developed the revolutionary underwater camera, the Calypso-Phot, later licensed to Nikon, who called it the Calypso-Nikkor and then the Nikonos. Soon after, Cousteau made diving history again by creating, with Jean Mollard, the SP-350, a two-man submersible that could dive to 350 meters below the surface (the design would be upgraded in 1965 to subs that could reach 500 meters in depth).

At the same time, Cousteau’s experiences exploring the oceans were making him more and more sensitive to the impact of human beings on the seas. He believed the sea was a source of material, as well as an inspiration and a source of well-being. Although he stated he never said, “The sea is dying,” he was still an outspoken advocate of reducing human pollution of the seas.

His first visible campaign was to publicly oppose the planned dump of radioactive waste from EURATOM into the sea. The popular support he received resulted in public protests that included women and children blocking the tracks of the railroad that was to deliver the waste to a seaport. The train was turned back to its starting point. Cousteau would remain opposed to nuclear experiments and even had an informal debate with French president Charles de Gaulle on the subject.

With his two sons, Jean-Michel and Phillippe, Cousteau established The Cousteau Society in 1973. The society devotes itself to funding explorations by the Calypso and her sister ship the Alcyone, and promoting environmentally friendly policies for use of the seas. The society now boasts over 300,000 members.

Cousteau’s first wife, Simone, died of cancer in 1990. In 1991, he married Francine Triplet (they had already had a daughter and son before the marriage-Cousteau’s first family was unaware of their existence). Cousteau spent a large amount of his later years battling his son Jean-Michel for control of the Cousteau name. Tragically, his beloved Calypso sank in Singapore harbor. At the age of 87, Cousteau developed a severe respiratory illness. While recovering from it, he died of a heart attack in 1997. He was buried in the Cousteau family plot at Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac Cemetery in France and not, as is popularly believed, at sea.

The Legacy of the Man

Jacques Cousteau will always be credited with helping open the seas to human exploration. Prior to his development of the Aqua-Lung, divers were forced to free-dive without support equipment, using hard suits and connected to an air hose on the surface or relying on unpredictable and frequently unsafe rebreathers.

“Cousteau excited a whole generation about the beauty, dangers and fragility of the seas. Using his Aqua-Lung, millions of people have been able to visit Cousteau’s sometimes-dangerous undersea world as tourists, explorers or workers.”

Cousteau referred to himself as an oceanographic technician, meaning he was first and foremost an inventor and engineer. However, his contemporaries regarded him as a man in love with nature in general and the sea in particular. He called the oceans the blue continent.

Many formally trained scientists dismissed Cousteau’s explorations and so-called discoveries as publicity stunts geared more toward a popular audience than to the advancement of scientific theory. The scientific community at first also dismissed his technique of communication called divulgationisme, a simple method of sharing scientific concepts. In time, this method would be used in other disciplines and become an important part of modern television.

Cousteau’s work was honored on several occasions. He received the United Nations Environmental Prize in 1977 (along with Peter Scott), was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 from Ronald Reagan and was a regular consultant for the United Nations and World Bank.

After Cousteau’s death, Jean-Michel and his son, Fabien, carried on underwater explorations and created documentaries about the sea. They released a new series, Ocean Adventures in 2006, one episode of which, Voyage to Kure, inspired President George W. Bush to establish the North-western Hawaiian Islands National Monument, the largest marine protected zone in the world.

Courtesy

Almost all of the documentaries created by Jacques Cousteau and his son are available on DVD and videocassette. The No. 1 song Calypso by John Denver is available on the CD of the same name. You can find more information on The Cousteau Society at www.cousteau.org.

There are many books written by and about Cousteau, including Jacques Cousteau: The Ocean World, Harry N. Abrams, 1985 Jacques Cousteau: A Biography, Lerner Publishing Group, 2000; Silent World, National Geographic, 2004; The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau (20 Volumesj, Danbury Press, 1975; and Jacques Cousteau and the Undersea World, Chelsea House Publications, 2000.