The Undersea World of …
It’s fun sometimes to look back at events that shaped our fascination with the world around us. For me, seeing rocket ship launches, a man walking on the moon, jets overhead, up close photography of creepy, crawly things like fascinating fly eyes and hairy spiders (still very creepy!), steam power and crystal snowflake formations (ok, so I’m a thermal processing geek), I’ve always been interested in our oceans and the undersea world. Like our team here, with their dedicated exploration into solving your PIA (pain in the @%$) Jobs!, I love it when a team takes on their own explorations and discovers things we didn’t know existed, like GPS, energy, weather forecasting, computers of all kinds, medical breakthrough cures, and so much more. Technology is in a word…. AMAZING As a kid, there was a TV show that I loved – I was glued to the television set every time Jacques Cousteau’s “Undersea World” was on. His amazing camera photography caught my attention, as I could feel myself swimming along with the divers. Today marks 57 years ago when his famous TV show debuted. Here are some fun trivia, links, and background on one of our greatest explorers, and teachers, who touched so many kids in his amazing explorations. Thanks to Britannica.com, Wikipedia.org, YouTube.com, and thelegendsofq.com for the links, images and history. Enjoy!
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Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997) was a legendary French explorer, filmmaker, inventor, and marine conservationist. His life and career are filled with fascinating achievements and lasting legacy.
Cousteau was born in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France, in 1910. His passion for the ocean began as a young boy when he first learned to swim and explore the sea.
His interest in the marine world began in the summer of 1936, shortly after his career in aviation was abruptly ended by an automobile accident in the Vosges Mountains. The 26-year-old Cousteau, an officer in the French navy, suffered multiple injuries, including fractures and temporary paralysis in his right arm. After his return to active duty, he was transferred to Toulon, where a friend urged him to begin swimming as a means of strengthening his injured arm.
Cavorting one day with friends on the beach, he donned a pair of aviator’s goggles, entered the water, and swam beneath the surface to a magical world he had never dreamed existed. By the time he emerged, the course of his life had been altered forever. “Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed,” he would observe later. “It happened to me that summer’s day when my eyes opened to the world beneath the surface of the sea.”
Cousteau, along with engineer Émile Gagnan in 1943, developed the Aqua-Lung, the first modern scuba device, which allowed divers to explore the underwater world more freely than ever before, along with various methods and tools for underwater filming and exploration.
On November 24, 1951, the Calypso left Toulon on its first expedition: a trip to the Red Sea’s coral reefs. The story of that expedition and the photographs resulting from it were snapped up by National Geographic after Cousteau visited the publication’s headquarters in Washington. DC. That article was the first of 12 he would publish in the magazine.
His research ship, the Calypso, was a symbol of exploration and adventure. Aboard the Calypso, Cousteau and his team conducted numerous expeditions, making significant discoveries related to marine life and underwater environments. These expeditions were often filmed and turned into documentaries, which played a key role in raising public awareness about the beauty and fragility of the ocean and its inhabitants. (ABC voiceovers by Rod Serling…think the Twilight Zone).
Shortly afterward, Cousteau’s American television career was launched when he signed an agreement to do three films for Omnibus, a 90-minute CBS magazine program established by a Ford Foundation grant and narrated by Alistair Cooke. The first of those films, Undersea Archaeology, was telecast on January 17, 1954.
The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (SHARKS!!) made its debut in January 1968 and remained on the air until April 1977. Beautifully photographed, well-conceived, and written with a poetic touch, the series set a standard that few TV explorations of nature ever reach. The trips unearthed a wealth of new scientific knowledge about the continent, including an ocean swarming with fish and luxuriant plant life happily growing beneath icebergs.
In 1974, he founded the Cousteau Society to protect ocean life and led experiments in underwater habitation, such as the Conshelf series of underwater “villages” where humans lived and worked under the sea for extended periods.
In 1977, Cousteau employed his camera and boat on behalf of PBS, where he made 21 films for the Oasis in Space and the Cousteau Odyssey series. His work for PBS covered the five-year period between 1977 and 1982.
Cousteau was a passionate advocate for marine conservation, warning about overfishing, pollution, and climate decades before they became widely recognized issues.
He coined the term “continental shelf” and was one of the first to popularize this geological concept during his explorations. His adventures inspired James Bond gadgets seen in early Bond films and his work laid the foundation for modern marine biology and underwater filmmaking.
He authored more than 50 books, more than 60 films, and dozens of scientific papers and remains a timeless figure who connected people to the wonders of the ocean, leaving behind a profound message about our planet and what lies below the surface of the waters
Cousteau received numerous honors during his lifetime, including the Legion of Honour from the French government, as well as being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the United States in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan.
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