Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The Cousteau Society
http://www.cousteau.org/index.html

Before and after Cousteau
Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau left his mark forever on the planet and the oceans. When Cousteau and his teams embarked aboard Calypso to explore the world, no one yet knew about the effects of pollution, over-exploitation of resources and coastal development. The films of Calypso´s adventures drew the public´s attention to the potentially disastrous environmental consequences of human negligence. Cousteau, through his life and his work, was a major player in the environmental movement.

The ocean's call
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac (Gironde) in France. He entered the naval academy in 1930, was graduated and became a gunnery officer. Then, while he was training to be a pilot, a serious car accident ended his aviation career. So it was the ocean that would win this adventurer's soul. In 1936, near the port of Toulon, he went swimming underwater with goggles HE HAS DESIGNED HIMSELF. It was a breath-taking revelation.
Seeking a way to explore underwater longer and more freely, he developed, with engineer Emile Gagnan, the Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, or scuba, in 1943, and the world under the sea was opened up to human beings. After World War II, Cousteau, along with naval officer Philippe Tailliez and diver Frédéric Dumas, became known as the "mousquemers" ("musketeers of the sea") as they carried out diving experiments in the sea and laboratory. In 1950, Calypso, a former mine-sweeper, was modified into an oceanographic vessel, endowed with instruments for diving and scientific research, and the great adventure began. She and her crews explored the seas and rivers of the world for the next four decades.

Recognition
Diving saucers, undersea houses and ongoing improvements to the Aqua-Lung™ showed the Cousteau touch. With Professor Lucien Malavard and engineer Bertrand Charrier, Cousteau studied how to design a new complementary wind-power system, the Turbosail™, and, in 1985, the ship Alcyone was launched, using the new invention. Today, she is the Cousteau team´s expedition vessel.

Through more than 120 television films and more than 50 books, Captain Cousteau opened up the oceans to millions of households. Made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor for his service in the Résistance, Captain Cousteau was promoted to the rank of officier then commandeur in recognition of his contributions to science. A member of the US Academy of Sciences, he was also Director of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco for thirty years. In 1977, the United Nations awarded him the International Environmental Prize. He received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985. Then, in 1988, he was inscribed in the UN Environmental Programme's Global 500 Roll of Honor of Environmental Protection and received the National Geographic Society´s Centennial Award. Showered with awards, he was elected to the Académie française in 1989.

Heritage
Realizing that it would take an organized effort to protect the planet, in 1974, Captain Cousteau created The Cousteau Society, a US-based, not-for-profit, membership group. Then, in 1981, Fondation Cousteau (later EQUIPE COUSTEAU) was born in France. From these bases of supporters, he launched a worldwide petition campaign in 1990 to save Antarctica from mineral exploitation. His effort was successful: this pristine continent is now protected, for at least 50 years. The global reach of his influence was evident when, in 1992, the Captain received an official invitation to participate in the UN Conference on Development and the Environment held in Rio de Janeiro.

Captain Cousteau died on June 25, 1997, at the age of 87. The man is gone but his message has never been more alive. The Cousteau Society and EQUIPE COUSTEAU keep it ever in the forefront of public awareness.
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About The Cousteau Society
The Cousteau Society is a membership-supported, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the protection and improvement of the quality of life for present and future generations. More than one hundred books and 115 films to date have documented a variety of habitats: Antarctica, Haiti, Cuba, the Marquesas Islands and the Tuamotu Archipelago, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, the Andaman Islands, Borneo, Indonesia, Madagascar, South Africa, Lake Baikal and the Amazon, Mekong, Danube and Yellow rivers among others. Recent expeditions include the Caspian Sea, the St. Lawrence River of Canada and the Red Sea.
Beginning with the co-invention of the AquaLung®, Cousteau teams have led in the development of underwater technology with systems ranging from underwater habitats to submarines and imaging systems. Cousteau engineering teams developed the windship Alcyone and its unique wind-propulsion system of Turbosail™ cylinders. Through cooperation with independent scientists, expedition research ranges from measuring the contribution of nutrients in rivers to the global ocean system, to developing methods to measure primary productivity in the sea, to using new resource management approaches to achieve environmentally sound, sustainable social progress.

The Society speaks in testimony and counsel to governing bodies and leaders on issues of global concern, such as the protection of whales, fisheries, coral reefs and other habitats. In 1990, the Society launched a petition drive to protect Antarctica, the last vast pristine expanse on Earth, as a natural reserve dedicated to peace and science; it was at the forefront of efforts that culminated in the international protocol, which guarantees the prohibition of mineral activities for at least fifty years and implements a number of environmental protection measures.

Working with the UNESCO, the Society is establishing a network of Ecotechnie programs at universities around the world, most recently in Tasmania. Defined by Captain Cousteau, Ecotechnie is a new approach to decision-making that integrates the environment with economics, technology, and natural and social sciences President Cousteau joined with Judge Amedeo Postiglione to launch a campaign for an International Court of the Environment, to fill the urgent need for a legal authority to redress environmental damages. As an outgrowth of the 2004 expedition to the Red Sea, Cousteau has negotiated an agreement with the government of Sudan to establish a program of integrated coastal zone management to protect precious ecosystems under the Cousteau Label. Continuing its defense of fragile Antarctica in the face of ongoing threats, the Society is participating in the International Polar Year 2007-2008 through field work with the Census of Antarctic Marine Life.

The Society believes that only an informed and educated public can make the decisions necessary to protect and manage the world's natural resources. Education efforts directed toward members, classrooms and the general population include membership publications Calypso Log and Cousteau Kids, individual information packets on a variety of environmental subjects, statements on developing issues, participation in special events and the innovative Cousteau in the Classroom program, to date reaching over 111,000 students in more than 2,200 classrooms. The Cousteau Society is also working to expand its presence on the Internet to make its 30 years of informative material more readily available to a global audience. For more information, e- mail cousteau@cousteausociety.org or call 1-800-441-4395