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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – For nearly six decades, the Cousteaus have been the royal family of the ocean. Beginning in the 1950s, the films of Jacques Cousteau – and later, his TV show – made them a household name.
That legacy continues today with his son. As president of the Ocean Futures Society, an organization that celebrates “the ocean’s vital importance to the survival of all life on our planet,” Jean-Michel Cousteau is carrying on his father’s pioneering work.
America Tonight caught up with Cousteau in his adopted hometown of Santa Barbara to discuss how ocean exploration has evolved since his father’s time, his new film, “Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3-D,” and the influence that powerful groups have over ocean preservation. Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Lisa Fletcher: You’ve said that you've logged more time underwater than any living person. How much time do you think you’ve actually spent underwater?
Jean-Michel Cousteau: I have absolutely no idea. But I started almost 70 years ago and there is no one, unfortunately, who started diving before I did who are alive today or still diving. So, I'm the only one that's [been] diving for that period of time. I'm not looking for a record. I'm looking to never stop because I want to bring the information back to the public for them to make better decisions.
My generation grew up on “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” As a kid, I didn't miss an episode. I was mesmerized. Your dad opened up this universe that nobody had ever seen. How has underwater exploration changed from the 1960s to now?
I think his curiosity is what made him explore the ocean and see and discover what it is: a life-support system to every one of us. We all depend upon the ocean and a lot of people became very concerned, very interested, and started following the things my dad was doing. The quality of life is totally connected to the ocean. The majority of all life in the ocean and on land is because of the foundations of all life, which is the plankton, zooplankton and phytoplankton. Without them, we wouldn't be here. We didn't know that in those days.
The curiosity of my dad was to keep going, going, going. People would ask him, “What do you expect to find on your next dive?” And he always said, “If I knew, I wouldn't go.” When they ask me, “What is your best dive?” I say, “The next one.” That’s because every time we see something we've never seen before.
How much do we know about the ocean at this point?
We don't know very much. We've only explored the shallow waters because so far the technology does not allow us to stay deep for long periods of time. We're getting there, slowly.
How do you address issues, such as chemicals in the ocean, which people don’t relate to because they don’t see it?
Work, jobs, money. And people listen. If you can create new technologies to capture running waters before they get to the ocean [and] treat them, then that means not only work, that means money. And that's going to help a lot of people on the 30 percent of the planet where we live. It's going to protect the ocean, which we need to do.
Jean-Michel Cousteau
As humans, we segment ourselves; we create borders, we have cities and towns and states and countries, and we think in those terms. You can't really think that way with the ocean. We all have to think about it as one.
The good news for me is what I call the communication revolution. Today, you have 7.2 billion people who can communicate with each other. That was not the case 20 years ago. Borders were probably OK. Today, it's an absurdity; borders are meaningless. The United States has shown that. The good news is that we're heading in that direction, but time is of the essence. There's one ocean, one land, one system, which we all depend upon. We're the only species on the planet that has the privilege not to disappear. It's all choice. And I believe we are heading in that direction of making the right things so we won't disappear.
I want to believe that, but we're sitting here in Santa Barbara, which just experienced its worst oil spill in 50 years. Five years ago, we had Deepwater Horizon. This is not the bulk of the world being careless; these are powerful groups, powerful companies, very robust political action groups that are really responsible, in many ways, for this global damage. How do you penetrate that?
I've experienced the different catastrophes, such as what happened in Prince William Sound with the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. Today, [its] resident population of orcas – that live as long as we live, that are the most clever, sophisticated creatures, they are to the ocean what we are to the land – cannot reproduce anymore because of what we've done over there. I went to Spain where there was another spill. I've seen people cry, losing their jobs, not even able to catch fish, and the banks would take their boats away. This is what we are doing to ourselves. Billions and billions of dollars have been spent to compensate the people who lost their jobs and lost their equipment, [and] got very, very sick – many of them, including some that died – while the dolphins were giving birth in the oil and breast-feeding in the oil. Today, we're finding out that many of them have not survived or cannot survive or may be very, very sick and not able to reproduce.
Well, that money could be used for new technology. Whether it's the sun, the wind, the currents, or the difference of temperature, there are new technologies being put together by pioneers, who are spending all their resources in order for that to happen.
We're not there to point fingers or blame them. We're there to come up with solutions for them to continue to be in business, solutions for our species to continue to enjoy this planet and manage our resources in a sustainable way. We can do it. We are doing it. We're heading in that direction, but time is of the essence. The more we wait, the more expensive it is. And I don't mean money – I mean people.
You've produced 80 films, many of them award-winning. The latest, “Secret Ocean,” is promoted with a phrase: “The smallest life in the sea is the mightiest force on which we all depend." What does it mean?
I've been diving for almost 70 years. And now, thanks to new technology, I can see things I've never seen before. I can swim over certain creatures or plants and focus in slow motion on the behavior of these creatures. We can put that on a big, 100-foot screen in 3-D for people to see the foundation of all life in the ocean, which we all depend upon.
I'm sorry if I sound like I'm repeating the importance of protecting the ocean, but how can you do it? My father used to say all the time, “People protect what they love.” And I kept saying, “How can you protect what you don't understand?” And thanks to that technology and "Secret Ocean" [we’re] unveiling secrets, by allowing that technology to bring these images to the public. And I think it's just the beginning of many, many, many more discoveries we're going to be able to make with that equipment.
Living in D.C., I’ll be driving along and I have to remind myself what an extraordinary city I live in, because you get used to the beauty. Do you ever get used to what you see under the ocean? Do you ever forget to appreciate?
No. One of the obligations we have is to connect. If I'm somewhere and I feel I don't want to go because I love where I am, I go. That’s because I want to see what I haven't seen. I want to share what I haven't been able to share yet with anyone.
Catch more of Lisa Fletcher’s conversation with Jean-Michel Cousteau on Talk to Al Jazeera at the end of this month on Al Jazeera America
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