Jacques-Yves Cousteau

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Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1976.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (IPA: [ʒak iv kusto]) (11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997)[1] was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française. He was commonly known as "le Commandant Cousteau" or "Captain Cousteau".

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[edit] Background

Cousteau was born on 11 June 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau. He discovered the sea in the creeks close to Marseille where his family settled. He completed his preparatory studies at the prestigious Collège Stanislas in Paris. In 1930 he entered the École Navale and, after graduating, became a gunnery officer. After an automobile accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau indulged his interest in the sea.

In Toulon, where he was serving on the Condorcet, Cousteau carried out his first underwater experiments, thanks to his friend Philippe Tailliez who in 1936 lent him some Fernez underwater goggles, predecessors of modern diving masks. [2] He later worked his way up the ranks as he became more famous and more useful to the navy. Cousteau also belonged to the information service of the French Navy, and was sent on missions to Shanghai and Japan (1935-1938) and in the USSR (1939).

On 12 July 1937 he married Simone Melchior, with whom he had two sons, Jean-Michel (1938) and Philippe (1940). His sons took part in the adventure of the Calypso. In 1991, one year after his wife Simone's death from cancer, he married Francine Triplet. They already had a daughter Diane Cousteau (1980) and a son Pierre-Yves Cousteau (1982), born before their marriage.

Jacques Cousteau was the brother of right-wing fascist journalist and World War II Germany collaborator Pierre-Antoine Cousteau (1906–1958).

Cousteau died at the age of 87 of a heart attack while recovering from a respiratory illness. He is buried in the Cousteau family plot at Saint-André-de-Cubzac Cemetery, Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France.

[edit] Defense of the environment

Jacques-Yves Cousteau superimposed the geonimic vision of the sea and Earth elaborated in the 1930's by Jacques Grob and Philippe Tailliez with a conqueror's mentality. A cultivated explorer in the spirit of Jules Vernes, he fed the public's taste for wonder. "One protects what one likes.", Cousteau repeated, "and one likes what enchanted us." As Cousteau's oceanographic and cinematographic campaigns took place over more than 50 years (1945-1997), he was able to measure the degradation of the in-situ mediums: the conqueror-explorer, sure of his technical prowess and finding it natural to drive out marine animals gradually morphed into an ardent conservationist who leveraged his worldwide notoriety to promote the idea of the Earth as a limited and fragile spaceship that needed to be preserved. He was the only non-politician to take part in the 1992 Rio Summit.

After 1975, he briefly considered founding worldwide 'Cousteau Clubs' for young people, but eventually abandoned this idea in its original form (which would have involved significant work with few direct rewards) and instead published a few fanzines (Calypso Log, Le Dauphin) and made a documentary film about a trip to the Antarctic with children. Towards the end of his life, he became pessimistic and even misanthropic: An ideal planet, he confided to Yves Paccalet, would be one in which humanity is limited to 100,000 people who are both educated and respectful of nature.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau's star power rested not only on his personal image, but on the image of a united team striving towards a common goal. Late in his life, however, highly-publicized intra-family conflicts, internal divisions, and consequent lawsuits chipped away at this image, and that of his successors: son Jean-Michel and grandson Fabien on one side, and the Cousteau Team with his third wife Francine and their children of the other, do not have the public standing of the 20th century Cousteau Team.

On the other hand, the kind of underwater and adventure film that Jacques-Yves Cousteau launched has never been more popular: each year, hundreds of increasingly beautiful documentaries are produced, thanks to improvement of photographic techniques. The idea of a fragile planet and sea has not only made its way into the public consciousness, but also affects the political class who were slower to come to environmental awareness.

[edit] Islam

Despite persistent rumors, encouraged by some Islamic publications and websites, Cousteau did not convert to Islam, and when he died he was buried in a Roman Catholic Christian funeral. [3]

[edit] Legacy

Cousteau's legacy includes more than 120 television documentaries, more than 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members.[1]

Cousteau liked to call himself an "oceanographic technician." He was, in reality, a sophisticated showman, teacher, and lover of nature. His work permitted many people to explore the resources of the oceans.

His work also created a new kind of scientific communication, criticised at the time by some academics. The so-called "divulgationism", a simple way of sharing scientific concepts, was soon employed in other disciplines and became one of the most important characteristics of modern television broadcasting.

Cousteau died on 25 June 1997. The Cousteau Society and its French counterpart, l'Équipe Cousteau, both of which Jacques-Yves Cousteau founded, are still active today. The Society is currently attempting to turn the original Calypso into a museum and it is raising funds to build a successor vessel, the Calypso II.

In his last years, after marrying again, Cousteau became involved in a legal battle with his son Jean-Michel over Jean-Michel licensing the Cousteau name for a South Pacific resort, resulting in Jean-Michel Cousteau being ordered by the court not to encourage confusion between his for-profit business and his father's non-profit endeavours.

In 2007 International Watch Co introduced the IWC Aquatimer Chronograph 'Cousteau Divers' Special Edition. The timepiece incorporated a sliver of wood from the interior of Cousteau's Calypso research vessel. Having developed the diver's watch, IWC offered support to The Cousteau Society. The proceeds from the timepieces' sales were partially donated to the non-profit organization involved into conservation of marine life and preservation of tropical coral reefs.[4]

[edit] Pop culture tributes and references

  • Wu-Tang Clan member Old Dirty Bastard pays homage to Jacques Cousteau in the song Da Mystery of Chessboxin' from Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the 36 Chambers. "Here I go, deep type flow. Jacques Cousteau could never get this low."
  • Belgian singer Plastic Bertrand made a song about Jacques Cousteau in 1981, under the title Jacques Cousteau.
  • John Denver wrote a song called Calypso as a tribute to Cousteau, the ship, and her crew. The song reached the number-one position on the Billboard 100 charts.
  • Director Wes Anderson has referenced Cousteau a number of times. In his 1998 film Rushmore, the main character Max Fischer finds a Jacques Cousteau quote handwritten in a library book and begins a search for the last person who checked out the book. The quote was "When one man, for whatever reason, has an opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself."
  • The 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou ,also directed by Wes Anderson, is regarded as both a homage to and a send-up of Cousteau's career. It includes an end credit that reads "In memory of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and with gratitude to the Cousteau Society, which was not involved in the making of this film."
  • Two New Age composers, Vangelis (who was heavily involved with Cousteau in the 1990s) and Jean Michel Jarre, released albums including original numbers honoring Jacques-Yves Cousteau: Cousteau's Dreams (2000) and Waiting for Cousteau (1990).
  • The Swedish band Bob Hund performed a tribute to Jacques Cousteau on their album Ingenting, released in 2002, with songs recorded in 1992-93. They refer to him as being "a brave aquanaut".
  • The band The Flight of the Conchords references Jacques Cousteau in their song Foux du Fa Fa.
  • Andrew Bird's song Lull, on his album Weather Systems, begins, "Being alone, it can be quite romantic/Like Jacques Cousteau underneath the Atlanic."
  • In Star Trek, the captain's yacht of the USS Enterprise-E is named Cousteau.
  • An internet rumour and disinformation which has been running since 1989 says wrongly that Cousteau became a Muslim upon seeing the Koran. [5]
  • Around 1980 a scale model of the Calypso research ship, complete with the marine helicopter was sold to children worldwide, along with leaflets calling for donations to the Cousteau foundation. These models are still being sold as toys. [6]
  • The futuristic novel The Deep Range written by Arthur C. Clarke mentions a research submarine named Cousteau.
  • Gwar's first album, Hell-O, included a song named "Je M'Appelle J. Cöusteaü".
  • The Actionslacks released a song entitled "Jacques Cousteau" on their EP "Kids With Guitars."

[edit] See also

[edit] Jacques-Yves Cousteau's ships

[edit] Bibliography

Books by Cousteau

  • The Silent World (1953, with Frederic Dumas)
  • Captain Cousteaus Underwater Treasury (1959, with James Dugan)
  • The Living Sea (1963, with James Dugan)
  • World Without Sun (1965)
  • The Undersea Discoveries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1970-1975, 8-volumes, with Philippe Diole)
    • The Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea (1970)
    • Diving for Sunken Treasure (1971)
    • Life and Death in a Coral Sea (1971)
    • The Whale: Mighty Monarch of the Sea (1972)
    • Octopus and Squid: The Soft Intelligence (1973)
    • Three Adventures: Galápagos, Titicaca, the Blue Holes (1973)
    • Diving Companions: Sea Lion, Elephant Seal, Walrus (1974)
    • Dolphins (1975)
  • The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau (1973-78, 21 volumes)
    • Oasis in Space (vol 1)
    • The Act of Life (vol 2)
    • Quest for Food (vol 3)
    • Window in the Sea (vol 4)
    • The Art of Motion (vol 5)
    • Attack and Defense (vol 6)
    • Invisible Messages (vol 7)
    • Instinct and Intelligence (vol 8)
    • Pharaohs of the Sea (vol 9)
    • Mammals in the Sea (vol 10)
    • Provinces of the Sea (vol 11)
    • Man Re-Enters Sea (vol 12)
    • A Sea of Legends (vol 13)
    • Adventure of Life (vol 14)
    • Outer and Inner Space (vol 15)
    • The Whitecaps (vol 16)
    • Riches of the Sea (vol 17)
    • Challenges of the Sea (vol 18)
    • The Sea in Danger (vol 19)
    • Guide to the Sea and Index (vol 20)
    • Calypso (1978, vol 21)
  • A Bill of Rights for Future Generations (1979)
  • Life at the Bottom of the World (1980)
  • The Cousteau United States Almanac of the Environment (1981, aka The Cousteau Almanac of the Environment: An Inventory of Life on a Water Planet)
  • Jacques Cousteau's Calypso (1983)
  • Marine Life of the Caribbean (1984, with James Cribb and Thomas H. Suchanek)
  • Jacques Cousteau's Amazon Journey (1984, with Mose Richards)
  • Jacques Cousteau: The Ocean World (1985)
  • The Whale (1987, with Philippe Diole)
  • Jacques Cousteau: Whales (1988, with Yves Paccalet)
  • The Human, The Orchid and The Octopus (and Susan Schiefelbein, coauthor; Bloomsbury 2007]

Books about Cousteau

  • Undersea Explorer: The Story of Captain Cousteau (1957) by James Dugan
  • Jacques Cousteau and the Undersea World (2000) by Roger King
  • Jacques-Yves Cousteau: His Story Under the Sea (2002) by John Bankston
  • Jacques Cousteau: A Life Under the Sea (2008) by Kathleen Olmstead

Films

Television Series

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cousteau Society
  2. ^ The Cousteau Foundation page about "The Captain" confirms Cousteau biography as written here.
  3. ^ Témoignage: La "conversion" du commandant Cousteau à l'Islam (French)
  4. ^ IWC in homage to Cousteau
  5. ^ the source for this claim and its official refutation
  6. ^ Calypso model ship sold on the Internet.
 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Preceded by
Jean Delay		 Seat 17
Académie française
1988–1997		 Succeeded by
Érik Orsenna

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Yves_Cousteau"
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