Talk:Jacques Cousteau

Early discussions

• Never mind-I am answering my own question. jo
• I can't figure out how to add an article about Simone Melchior??jo 18:01, 15 November 2003 User:Jo.G

• Wow, thanks, Gianfranco. That's the best article I've read in weeks. Keep up the good work. --Ed Poor 10:02, 1 August 2002

• Hi, I have translated this article for the french version of Wikipedia. Thus I have done some adaptations and ameliorations :
  • I wrote some precision during the WWII,
  • I corrected the chronology,
  • I precise some part with "the dark" side of JYC,
  • I tried to make the article more neutral.

  As I'm not an english native speaker, it will be difficult for me to write back these modifications. But, if someone would like to do this I will help this person with pleasure.

meszigues 20:21, 13 October 2002 User:Meszigues

• I too miss some mentioning of the "dark sides" of Mr Cousteau. Although some of his methods were considered justified as means to the cause back in the day, they should still be discussed in an open matter to get the full picture of this legend. --lowcrust 01:09, 22 December 2006 User:213.236.226.202
• What do you think to notice this debate in the article ? Chmouel 19:03, 28 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• I did not know that Cousteau has ever been a spy during WWII. I read his book "The World of Silence" and in does not mention anything of the kind. Do you have any pointers for that? David.Monniaux 19:33, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• this is a well know thing, for example you can read it from one of the book who talk about him. | Chmouel 19:56, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Well, in "the World of Silence", he mentions that he used to be a naval officer, then spent some time during the war trying to perfect diving equipment. He said he was mistaken by the Germans and Italians for some kind of spy at several times. Is there any kind of confirmation about any actual spy work from Cousteau's mouth himself? Why didn't he talk about it in his best-seller book? David.Monniaux 22:05, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• I agree. JVC was a spy in 1939. Check out Alex Madsen's Cousteau- An Unauthorized Biography. 1986. He also did minesweeping work with his aqua lung in enemy harbors. Jo.g 22:29, Apr 3,

2004 (UTC)

Names of Calypso Crew?

My grandfather died before I was born. But he was a seaman his whole life. There is talk in my family that he was aboard the Calypso with Cousteau. Is there any way to find out the names of the crew during one of Cousteau's expedition's? My grandfathers name was James Armstrong in case someone is able to verify this. Thank you! User:KineticRic 16:06 10/01/2008

Although that's not 100% impossible, it's very unlikely. Cousteau's team was almost exclusively French (with the exception of at least one Italian). I think your grandpa story is one of the many "imaginary tales of our forefathers" commonly found in American families. Just like D-Day. Ask an American aged between 20 and 60 if his father or grandfather was part of D-Day. You're 80% certain they'll tell you "yes". Yet it's completely unrealistic. Reality would have the number around 5%. Obama himself once fabricated an uncle that liberated Auschwitz. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.72.92.4 (talk) 10:24, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, thanks for the info. But how about trying to be more mature and not attacking a whole nation (America) by implying that most of us make history up about forefathers. I never once said ti was fact, I said "there is talk" meaning we are not creating false history., we are merely trying to find facts.

D-day and your made up "80%" statistics about who will say they had a family member in D-Day has noting to do with this.--KineticRic (talk) 22:27, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

You may be perfectly well right about the Cousteau thing, but do you have a citation for the D-Day phenomenon? As for Obama, he didn't fabricate the uncle, he mistook the camp. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/05/27/obamas_uncle_and_the_liberatio.html. —Largo Plazo (talk) 12:31, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

The disambiguation

I think that the disambiguation should be made a seperate page, Currently I think its there becuase "Cousteau" links to this page. What are your thoughts on this. Also does anyone have an acceptable picture of him? I do have books with his picture but they are copyrighted works making them of no use for Wikipedia. --Silver86 22:47, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Page renamed

I've moved this back to Jacques Cousteau, and fixed the double-redirects, as this is how he is most commonly known in English, per Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names).--Pharos 04:14, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

what about Jean-Michel and Phillipe

One of the great tragedies of the Cousteau legacy was the loss of his son Philippe. How come neither Philippe or Jean-Michel are mentioned in his biography? As I recall, there was some ill will with Jean-Michel that took place in his later years (http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i030303/i030303.html) and maybe some other shenanigans. Demetrick 02:32, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

Did Cousteau die in the cemetary?

"He died on 25 June 1997 aged 87 of a heart attack while recovering from a respiratory illness in the Cousteau family plot at Saint-André-de-Cubzac Cemetery, Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France."

I assume Mr. Cousteau did not actually die in the cemetary. :-) Jmturner 14:51, 14 March 2006 (UTC) if yow want answer your self

mistake

it said that he was buried in the cemetery who ever said the previous headline!

Authenticity Controversy

After Cousteau died, some of his crew claimed that scenes had been faked in his films. The media gave this significant attention at the time, and I think of it as the most important event in Cousteau's biography after his death. There were also a number of controversies during his life. In addition to these ommissions, the whole thing reads a bit hagiographic. Vagary 06:32, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Well it cannot be said that he didn't ruffle some feathers! If memory serves, there is an interesting story of how they got into the Blue Hole in Belize. Hundreds of divers per year can now dive inside the blue hole because Cousteau and crew dynamited their way through the coral to make a channel for the Calypso... It certainly shows a dichotomy in the makeup of this "ecologist". On the other hand, JY Cousteau did incredible things to highlight this earth's Innerspace. Hundreds of thousands of people are/were inspired by his stories, real or fake...

--Arkayik 04:14, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Vangelis/Jean Michel Jarre albums?

Hello, thought it would be appropriate to add the Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre tribute (?) albums in the pop culture section, since Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre are such grand musicians and all. Agree?

John Denver

Didnt John Denver sing a song about Calypso and was used as the theme of the TV Show?

Trying to help...

I've added/corrected some of the informaton about his dives at Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. There aren't too many sources online for easy referencing, but plenty if you visit the town in Provence, France.

62.147.137.100 17:25, 3 September 2006 (UTC) David

Philippe Cousteau son/grandson

It mentions Philippe, Jacques's son who was born 1940 and died in 1979 in an accident. Philippe must have had a son named Philippe as he was working with Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter at the time of Steve's death. The article makes it sound like Philipe, the grandson must be dead. Someone might want to update Jacques's personal history a bit more.

Jacques Cousteau has converted to Islam??

do any one have any in formation about this ??coz i heared it in a tv show ,claimin' that Cousteau has converted to islam after he reads a chapter from their holy book <qouran>where something about the salt water and river water don't get mixed>> IS THAT TRUE??

No[1]. Many stories of conversions, based on scientific miracles and the like, have been forged.

Parents' names ... two versions

Which is it? And does the birthplace take hyphens? Phillipe is probably a misspelling of Philippe and Mary doesn't sound French at all.

Cousteau was born in Saint André de Cubzac, France to Daniel and Elizabeth Cousteau on June 11, 1910 and died in Paris, France.

or

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France to Phillipe Cousteau (a lawyer) and Mary Cousteau.

61.246.59.83 11:40, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Jacques Cousteau converted to Islam?

I believe it was in 1962, after researching the fact that the water from the mediterranean sea and the atlantic ocean don't mix as mentioned in the Quran 55:19-20 and 25:53

Source? -Will Beback 23:34, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, but this is a hoax. See here. He was a lifelong Catholic and his funeral services were held at Notre Dame de Paris. 68.40.65.164 (talk) 00:14, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

yeah, that is definitely a hoax.... WacoJacko (talk) 15:16, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Cleanup

Some of the article is just a list of facts; until I edited it a moment ago, it mentioned his birth/death dates many times — as though it had been thrown together from a number of independent short pieces, each containing some of the same details. It needs to be turned into an article, in (encyclop&alig;dia-appropriate) English prose. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:32, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

It seems this article still requires some substantial cleanup. The whole thing reads rather awkwardly and is not well-written. I have tried to clear up some of the summary and the early biographical information, some of which is still not cited and is not found anywhere, even in Chambers. I cannot spend the time to do the whole thing, but hope that it gets the attention it needs. Peaky beaky (talk) 06:01, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

The so-called "divulgationism" ?

There are currently with Google only 5 results for : divulgationism
is "divulgationism" correct ?
90.2.83.68 16:18, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it is an "english" translation of the french term "divulgationisme"... the problem is there really is no english term for this word so divulgationism is not really a word... so it might be a good idea to revert to the French term (which is still a very rare word in the French language, Cousteau may have invented this term according to something I read - so that could also be investigated). - Chris - Unregisterd user - 10 july 08 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.229.85.62 (talk) 16:14, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Medal?

I recently read in a biography that Jacques received a medal from National Geographic which was presented by J.F.K. I thought maybe that should be in here too.

Jazaray 03:47, 29 May 2007 (UTC)Jazaray

Popular Culture section

The Popular Culture section of the article is far too long and includes some references that are incidnetial at best and certainly don't represent any lasting contribution to popular culture. I propose a major cull of the list, but am interested in other's viws first.

If no one has a contrary view (or if no one cares either way) I'll do the cull in a few days time. Euryalus 09:50, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Seeing as no one expressed a view, I have removed those references which were incidental, such as single uses of the name in an otherwise unrelated TV show episode; songs allegedly (but not explicitly) based on Cousteau and references to the name in desk calendars and he like. Some of the references I left in are still a little tenuous and all of them are unsourced. This will be addressed as part of a wider cleanup of the article. -- Euryalus (talk) 19:35, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Is the brother really necessary?

I have read the article about Captain Cousteau and was slightly stunned by how much stress was put on Cousteau's brother's anti- Semitic views. I do not believe it is necessary to mention that fact in the biography of Mr. Cousteau not only because it has nothing to do with the Captain's personal life but because it makes the article charged and not neutral. Instead of accenting how Mr. Cousteau was a brilliant marine biologist and how he achieved brilliance through his life, the article accents the fact that his brother was anti- Semitic. Slightly unnecessary, don't you think? D.Medvedko (talk) 02:23, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Incorrect Age at Death

Cousteau died in 1997 and was born in 1910, so dying at the age of 93 is impossible. I've modified this.192.206.151.130 (talk) 14:50, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Also this doesn't make any sense:

In July 1997 he participated in the production of a low budget documentary in Armadale, Western Australia, which portrayed the plight of an innocent hen being attacked by a fox. This documentary used spectacular special effects making use of a bag of feathers being agitated by a stick with a bit of red felt attached[6].

Jacques-Yves Cousteau died on 25 June 1997 in Paris, aged 87.

Plastic bertrand

Plastic Bertrand is not french-Canadian. He's belgian. I've modified this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.59.70.28 (talk) 19:49, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Discovery of Abu Dhabi oil?

They are showing the Cousteau documentaries here on Finnish television currently. One show had pictures of Cousteau diving and supposedly surveying the sea around Abu Dhabi, and discovering what the narration leads one to believe, are the whole oil wealth of that country, or at the very least, the first oil fields of that country, in the sea.

I have very little trust in the perfect fidelity to truth of that narration, but since there isn't anything even close to that mentioned in the article, I wonder how far distorted the narration of that particular section of the documentary episode is... Is it merely exaggerated to an impossible degree, totally fabricated for fictional dramatization, or (to my surprise, if it is) totally accurate and factual? -- Cimon Avaro; on a pogostick. (talk) 01:53, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

General Disorder

The page is full of great facts but the organization of this page and it's labels are completely disorganized. The "childhood and early career" section talked about his marriages and his death! so I relabled it "Personal Life" .. the 1950's section coverd 50-70s so I relabled it, same with the 1990's section. But those sections are all scattered between the sections on his varioud discoveries... Perhaps a better way to organize the page is a complete chronology without major headings. -- Chris - Unregistered user - 10 July 08 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.229.85.62 (talk) 16:18, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Continuing with my last post about the general disorder. I edited the page a bit. I did not delete any information except for a couple repeats about him "inventing the aqualung" which is not correct anyway. I included the section called "biology" in the chronology of his career and did the same with the section titled "Exploration" (also a fairly weak section on its own). This page really needs much more work.

Hope I have not destroyed you rwork, but further to my comments under "Cleanup" I have also done some rearranging to make this article more readable. It is rather clumsily written still and requires more attention.Peaky beaky (talk) 06:04, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

laguna azul paliaikes region in "suthern" patagonia

Can anyone provide detailed information on this?? Someone added this line to the page in a random place so I am moving it to the discussion page here's what they wrote: "He was also known for his long researches in the laguna azul paliaikes region in suthern patagonia" I'm guessing this might have been written by a spanish-speaker from that part of south america so it might be an aspect of cousteaus career that is less known to the english speaking world. Anyhow ff there's something to this perhaps someone would like to add it in a more detailed manner. -chris —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.229.85.62 (talk) 16:41, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Gwar song about Cousteau

Gwar has a song titled "Je M' Appelle J. Cousteau" from their 1988 debut album Hell-o that paints a very unflattering picture of Cousteau. It should be included in the Popular Culture section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.35.130.209 (talk) 21:59, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Popular culture section (again)

Around a year ago I proposed a cull of the "Popular Culture" section to remove incidental and trivial mentions of Cousteau, such as a single mention of his name by a character in one episode of a sitcom. Essentially I proposed to retain references where the medium was entirely about Cousteau (for example, a song specifically about him or his life) or where the mention had an undeniable cultural impact (if for example, a movie is formally dedicated to his memory, or a notable object in the film/book is named after him), and remove passing mentions which ahd no apparent cultural impact. As no one objected, I went ahead and edited the list.

A year later, we're back where we started with random passing mentions and an overlong list of trivia. I've therefore dione another cull and removed the items listed below:

• In an episode of Full House, Joey makes a few jokes on Jacques Cousteau in his appearance on Star Search.
• In 1993, rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard refers to Cousteau in the song Da Mystery of Chessboxin' on the Wu-Tang Clan album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). (Here I go - Deep type flow - Jacques Cousteau could never get this low)
• The band Incubus refers to Cousteau in their single Nice To Know You, which is in the album Morning View. ("Deeper than the deepest Cousteau would ever go / Higher than the heights of what we often think we know")
• Musician Matthew Thiessen refers to Jacques Cousteau as being one of his role models in his song Trademark.
• In season 6, episode 9 of Friends The One Where Ross Got High, Phoebe has a dream about Jacques Cousteau and declares her love for him. Mrs. Geller tells her that she thinks he's dead.
• In the song "Twist My Arm", singer Gordon Downie of The Tragically Hip references Jacques Cousteau in the opening lyrics.
• In Finding Nemo, the title character shares a tank with a Pacific cleaner shrimp named Jacques.
• Blue Öyster Cult mentions Cousteau in the song "Perfect Water" in the 1986 album "Club Ninja".
• Indie artist and multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Bird, refers to Jacques Cousteau in his song entitled "lull." ("being alone it can be quite romantic, like Jacques Cousteau underneath the Atlantic")
• Billy Connolly makes a reference to Cousteau in his "Was It Something I said?" DVD. According to Connolly "The only man allowed in (the oceans) was Jacques Cousteau and he could tell us what it's like, and fuck the rest, they're just ruining the place".
• On Survivor: Micronesia, contestant James comments in regard to raging sea waters that "Even Popeye wouldn't go in that. You would die! Jacques Costeau would be like, 'damn'!"

The edit seems uncontroversial, but obviously if anyone disagrees let's discuss and see if a consensus can be reached on these changes. Euryalus (talk) 05:14, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Defense of the Environment

I rewrote this section to syntactically-correct English. Its claims are not referenced, and I didn't edit for factual correctness, only syntax. I eliminiated the following sentence, which followed the mention of a documentary film in Antartica with children:

• It also refused to engage in policy at the side of the ecologists, not to give prizes to the personal attacks of the adversaries.

I don't know if the 'it' in this sentence is supposed to be the film, or Cousteau himself, and it's too ambiguous to re-write: did he refuse to side with ecologists to avoid validating personal attacks he had been subject to, or did he not want to give his critics grounds to criticize the film by staking an ecological position?

Billon (talk) 05:54, 9 January 2009 (UTC)