Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the man who brought the seas into the living rooms of millions of people around the world was born on 11 June, 1910 to Daniel and Elisabeth Cousteau in Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac, Gironde.
He became the head of the underwater research group of the French Navy. Marine exploration was his passion. Along with friend Emile Gagnan, he designed the aqualung. He could now be “a man-fish”. The aqualung enabled explorers to spend more time underwater and investigate the sea and its creatures at length. Cousteau was a biologist in his own right. He observed in his book The Silent World that porpoises were able move in a specific direction by listening to the echoes of the sound waves from other sea creatures. The principle of echolocation was a feature in submarines and Cousteau was one of the first to suggest that cetaceans like porpoises had this capability. Cousteau realized that marine conservation was very important. He made it a popular trend. In 1960, the European Atomic Energy Community wanted to dump a large amount of radioactive waste into the sea, which could prove hazardous to the marine animals. Cousteau was able to thwart this action by whipping up public opinion through publicity campaigns. He formed the Cousteau Society for Protection of Ocean Life. Frederick Hyman became its first president. The Society continues to do invaluable service in the field.
He bought a former minesweeper Calypso in 1950 and used it as a mobile-floating laboratory. The Calypso was fitted with sophisticated equipments. It enabled him to take the first ever color films underwater of the Red Sea. Calypso divers, for the first time, explored for offshore oil. the discovery of an ancient Greek freighter around 130ft below sea off Marseilles was another of his major achievement. The ship sank after being rammed by a boat in Singapore harbor in 1996.
Cousteau wrote a number of books. Apart from The Silent World, he wrote The Living Sea, The World Without the Sun and an encyclopedic work of 20 volumes called The Ocean world of Jacques Cousteau. His films Cousteau Odyssey and Cousteau Amazon and the documentary The Silent World captured the beauty of the sea and influenced a generation.
Captain Cousteau became known popularly across the world faced some unwarranted criticism too. His method of scientific communication was termed as ‘divulgationism’ by some academics, but it soon came to be accepted in all disciplines of TV filmmaking. Cousteau’s popularity is reflected in the song Calypso sung by John Denver and the compositions of Jean Michel Jarre. For his contributions as a marine explorer, ecologist, researcher and filmmaker, he was honored with awards-the U.N International Environment Prize (1977), the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S President (1985), and in his own country, he was decorated with Legion of Honor, the highest French civilian award. Jacques Cousteau died on 25 June 1997.
