ANCIENT& not so ancient WISDOM
offering a weekly positive perspective

August 11, 2005

"Il faut aller voir" ("We must go and see for ourselves")

- Jacque-Yves Cousteau (1910 - 1997)

This is the motto of Jacque Cousteau's ship the Calypso:

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born in Saint-André-de-Cubazac, France. His father was a lawyer who worked and traveled with an American businessman. The Cousteau family traveled with him. As a child, Jacque Cousteau had stomach problems and anemia. Doctors warned his parents not to allow him to participate in strenuous activities. He was allowed to swim, which he loved. 

Cousteau did not enjoy school and was expelled from one school for breaking windows. He eventually applied himself to engineering and graduated from Collége Stanislas in Paris and entered the École Navale in 1930, where he graduated second in his class and became a second lieutenant in the French navy. After tour of duty in Shanghai, he enrolled in flight school. Just before winning his wings, he was in a near-fatal car accident, which cost him his flight status. 

While stationed in China, Cousteau watched pearl divers and using a pair of underwater goggles, began his diving career. He also began working on equipment designs that would allow him to stay under the water for longer periods of time. During WWII, he worked as a spy for the French underground and was decorated with the Légion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre with Palm. 

Cousteau made his first underwater films during the war, and he continued his work on the aqualung. Cousteau was appointed head of the French navy's Underwater Research Group where they filmed German submarines at work setting mines and conducting maneuvers. 

In 1942, he teamed up with engineer Émile Gagnon who provided the automatic gas-feeder valve, the final element of the aqualung. The improved versions was tested in 1943 off the French Riviera, but because of the war production did not begin until 1946. After the war, they explored shipwrecks, studied the effects of underwater explosions, and participated in archaeological expeditions. In 1950, Cousteau founded the Campagnes Océanographiques Françaises, and in 1952, the Centre d'Etudes Marines Avanceés. Both organizations operated research ships, designed and built equipment used for underwater research, and researched the ability to work and live underwater. 

Cousteau worked on the development of the bathyscaphes, which allow men to go deeper into the sea. He also directed the Conshelf Saturation Dive program where men lived and worked for extended periods at underwater colonies on the continental shelves. 

Cousteau resigned from the French navy in 1956 with the rank of capitaine de corvette to become the head of the Cousteau Group. The group worked in oceanographic research, marine engineering, manufacture of diving gear and gases, film and television projects, the arts, and environmental lobbying. He also served as director of the Oceanographic Institute and Museum in Monaco, secretary general of the International Commission for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean, Chairman of Eurocean, Chairman of Centre d'Études Marines Avanceés and Chairmain of Campagnes Océanographiques Français. 

Cousteau was convinced that our survival is dependent on the oceans of the world and he worked to raise people's awareness of our fragile ecosystem. He believed that we could meet the world's growing energy needs by channeling the force of the tides and temperature changes of the seas. He also believed that we can feed the world with underwater farming. He won an Academy Award for best documentary twice, with "The Silent World (1956) and "World Without Sun" (1966) The Cousteau Society was formed to bring his messages of hope to the world. It is a nonprofit, membership supported organization founded in 1973. The Society is dedicated to the protection and improvement of the quality of life for present and future generations. 

Jacque-Yves Cousteau said, "When you dive, you begin to feel that you're an angel." 

The sad news is that Cousteau’s warning about the fragile ecosystem and the dying oceans has not been heard. It was predicted in 1990 that unless fishing practices were changed, there was a potential of losing 75% of the world's fisheries. According to the Pew Foundation report on the State of the World's fisheries released in June of 2003, over 90% of the world's large fish have been removed from the oceans and commercial fisheries have collapsed. The reason for the collapse has been a combination of mismanagement and corruption within international governmental fishery departments, industrial over-fishing, increasing demand from steadily rising human populations and greed.

On a positive note, I was forever inspired by the work of Jacque Cousteau and this week while diving with my sons in Catalina we had the amazing experience of swimming with a Giant Black Sea Bass, Stereolepis Gigas, in 60 feet of water. This guy was about 6 feet long and close to 500 pounds. Hunted almost to extinction, these fish were granted legal protection in 1982 and in the last 20+ years have made a comeback.

One person can make a difference in millions of lives. Follow your passions.

Wishing you a great and exciting journey of discovery.

Sincerely,