Jean-Michel Cousteau
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 his father's in 1997, Jean-Michel founded Ocean Futures Society in 1999 to carry on this pioneering work.
Responding to his father's call to 'carry forward the flame of his faith,' Jean-Michel's Ocean Futures Society, a non-profit 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, the Palme d'Or 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] .
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