Jacques Cousteau (1910–97,) fully Jacques-Yves Cousteau, was a French naval officer, oceanographer, and documentary movie director. The co-inventor of the Aqua-Lung scuba apparatus, he is known mainly for several documentaries and television series on marine life. He was also active in biological research and maritime conservation issues.
Born in Saint-André-de-Cubzac in southwestern France, Cousteau was educated at Stanislas, Paris, and École Navale (Navy Academy.) He served in the Résistance during World War II, for which he was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour and awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm.
As lieutenant de vaisseau 1939–43, Cousteau co-invented the Aqua-Lung underwater breathing device 1943. This device was not used prominently in World War II but was later used for the removal of mines. It has radically extended humankind’s mobility in exploring the deep.
In 1946, Cousteau founded the French Navy’s Undersea Research Group attached to the navy to clear mines and make scientific films underwater. In 1950, Cousteau became commander of the oceanographic research ship Calypso, from which he made the first underwater film. Having retired from the navy in 1956, he was appointed the director of the Musee Oceanographique de Monaco (1957–88.)
From the late 1960s, Cousteau’s emphasis shifted from scientific research to the popularization of marine biology and preservation of the oceans from pollution. His other achievements include developing an underwater television and the Bathyscaphe, designing a diving saucer capable of descending to great depths, and promoting the Conshelf program (1962–65,) which investigated the possibilities of undersea living.
Cousteau is best known for his many award-winning films, including Le Monde Du Silence (1953; The Silent World, 1956,) Histoire d’un poisson rouge (1959; The Golden Fish,) and Le Monde sans soleil (1964; World Without Sun.) The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (1968–76) and Lilliput en Antarctique (1990; Lilliput in Antarctica.) His books include The Living Sea (1963) and Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso (1983.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jacques Cousteau
Man, of all the animals, is probably the only one to regard himself as a great delicacy.
—Jacques Cousteau
Topics: Animals
If we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope, and we can work.
—Jacques Cousteau
Topics: Hope, Faith, Belief, Future
Without ethics, everything happens as if we were all five billion passengers on a big machinery and nobody is driving the machinery. And it’s going faster and faster, but we don’t know where.
—Jacques Cousteau
Topics: Ethics
The road to the future leads us smack into the wall. We simply ricochet off the alternatives that destiny offers. Our survival is no more than a question of 25, 50 or perhaps 100 years.
—Jacques Cousteau
Topics: Future
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.
—Jacques Cousteau
If a man for whatever reason has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.
—Jacques Cousteau
Topics: Life
To yackety-yak about the past is for me time lost. Every morning I wake up saying, ‘I’m still alive—a miracle.’ And so I keep on pushing.
—Jacques Cousteau
Topics: The Past, Life and Living
We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.
—Jacques Cousteau
Topics: One liners
The reason I love the sea I cannot explain—it’s physical. When you dive you begin to feel like an angel. It’s a liberation of your weight.
—Jacques Cousteau
From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free
—Jacques Cousteau
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