Jean-Michel Cousteau
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Jean-Michel Cousteau is the first son of ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and is the father of Fabien Cousteau. Cousteau was born in 1938 to Jacques-Yves' wife Simone.
He first dived with an aqua-lung in 1945 when he was 7 years old. An explorer, environmentalist, educator, film producer--- for more than four decades Jean-Michel Cousteau has used his vast experiences to communicate to people of all nations and generations his love and concern for our water planet.
Since first being 'thrown overboard' by his father at the age of seven with newly invented SCUBA gear on his back, Jean-Michel has been exploring the world's oceans. He spent much of his life with his family aboard Calypso and Alcyone. After his mother's death in 1990 and a lawsuit which signalled the end of his collaboration with his father, Jean-Michel founded the Ocean Futures Society in 1999.
Jean-Michel's Ocean Futures Society, a marine conservation and education organization, serves as a 'Voice for the Ocean' by fostering a conservation ethic, conducting research, and developing marine education programs. Jean-Michel serves as an impassioned spokesman and diplomat for the environment, reaching out to the public through a variety of media. He has produced over 70 films, and been awarded the Emmy, the Peabody Award, and the Cable Ace Award.
He appeared on a documentary-type special feature on the DVD version of the Spongebob Squarepants Movie in which he and Stephen Hillenburg talk about all of the real-life counterparts to the sea creatures seen in the cartoon series and the movie and even some that are not in the movie. He did a similar feature for the DVD of the Disney/Pixar movie Finding Nemo.
Jean-Michel Cousteau made a new documentary series Ocean Adventures[1] released in 2006. One episode of the series, Voyage to Kure, inspired the President of the United States of America George W. Bush to create the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument, the largest marine protected area in the world [2] [3] .
In Disney's DVD release of the Pixar film Finding Nemo, Cousteau makes an appearance interacting with the characters from the film, Marlin, Nemo and Dory, and touting the need for better pollution control, showing videos of sick coral reefs.
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[edit] Documentary Film Expeditions in Progress for PBS' Ocean Adventures
Ocean Futures Society, KQED and PBS are continuing production on the Ocean Adventures series for 2007 and 2008. In October 2006, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and an expedition team that includes his son Fabien and daughter Céline, began filming along the Amazon River. Twenty years ago scientists predicted devastation and irreversible environmental damage here, and 25 years ago Jean-Michel Cousteau and his legendary father traveled with their teams the entire length of the Amazon to document, learn, and see for themselves. Jean-Michel now returns to reassess the river and record changes that have occurred in Earth’s greatest river system.
[edit] Watch "Humpback Ballet", a short film from PBS' Ocean Adventures
Synopsis:
In the warm protected waters of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, two thirds of the North Pacific humpback whale population come to compete and mate. In this short film, Cousteau divers use rebreathers to quietly film a pod of humpback whales. Their intimate experience is featured in "America's Underwater Treasures," a two-hour program and part of the series, Jean-Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures aired on PBS in high-definition. The crew anticipated their enormous size, but not the grace of their underwater ballet. Jean-Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures is a co-production between Ocean Futures Society and KQED.
Watch "Humpback Ballet" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpKlCRfvjjU
[edit] References
- ^ Ocean Adventures
- ^ Turnaround as Bush creates huge aquatic Eden by Kenneth Weiss of the Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2006
- ^ Ocean Adventures web site
