Jean-Michel Cousteau talks to Lisa Fletcher

Lisa Fletcher: My generation grew up on the "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau." Your dad opened up this universe to generations. How has it changed from the 1960s in that initial exploration to now?

Jean-Michel Cousteau: I think his curiosity is what made him do what he did and open the door in a easy way compared to many other ways to exploring the ocean and seeing and discovering what is, at the end of the day, a life support system to every one of us. The majority of all life in the ocean and on earth on land is because of the ocean and the foundations of all life, which is the plankton, zooplankton, phytoplankton. Without them, it wouldn't have any life. We wouldn't be here. So we didn't know that in those days, and so the curiosity of my dad was to keep going, going, going. And 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." And what I say today, myself, is "What is your best dive?" when they ask me, and I say, "The next one."

I was just going to say that you've been diving the better part of 70 years. 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 there deep for long periods of time. We're getting there. Slowly getting there. As a matter of fact, there's new equipment which I've just been certified, the Exosuit, where you can go down to 1,000 feet in minutes, spend 10 hours. You're totally free. You propel yourself, and in 5 minutes you're back. And you can film, you can take samples, and so on, and that's going to help, but we're only talking about 1,000 feet. Today we know maybe 300 feet, so we have a long way to go to discover many, many new species, whether it's fish or plants, and I mean animals or plants, and we connected to all of these. Most people don't realize that the majority of the pharmaceutical products that you use originally come from the ocean, and we mimic those products, but if it wasn't for the ocean, we would have a lot of problems today.  

You mentioned chemicals and heavy metals, and people respond to what they see. You don't see chemicals. So how do you address this issue that people don't relate to because they don't see it?

Work. Jobs. Money. And people listen, and if you can create new technologies to capture these running waters before they get to the ocean, capture them, treat them, and some of it is being done, by the way, and 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, and it's going to protect the ocean, which we need to do.

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.

The good news for me is what I call the communication revolution, where today you have 7.2 billion people — we 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 showed that. There's 50 states. There's no borders to go from one state to the other. 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're heading in that direction of making the right things so we won't disappear.

We're sitting in Santa Barbara [California]. It just experienced the worst oil spill that it's seen 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. How do you penetrate that? It's a small, powerful group that is really responsible in many ways for this global damage.

I've experienced the different catastrophes that took place, such as what happens in Prince William Sound with the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. Today the resident population of orcas that was there, that live as long as we live, that are the most clever, sophisticated creature, they are to the ocean what we are to the land. They 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.  

You've produced 80 films, many of them which are award winning. The latest, "Secret Ocean," is promoted with a phrase. It says, "The smallest life in the sea is the mightiest force on which we all depend." It's a great phrase, but what does it mean?

I've been diving almost 70 years next month. And I now, thanks to the new technology that is available, I can see things I've never seen before. Thanks to that technology, and "Secret Ocean" is unveiling secrets by allowing that technology to bring these images to the public. And for them to understand that — whether it's the plankton or many other species of the foundations of all life in the ocean, and as it goes up the food chain, it allows the big fish, the dolphins, the whales and so on to be alive today. And it's connected to every one of us. So it's a very exciting approach, 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. 

Is it true that when you were a boy you would grab your book bag and head off to school but some days never actually make it — you'd go to the ocean and you'd stay?

Well, it's not that simple, because I was getting in trouble. I would take my bag, and I would go to the coastline, almost every day, on my way to school. And one of the things I wanted to do was to catch octopus. Today I cannot do it anymore … I used to go lift walks, and I had learned from the local fishermen how to treat them, and so I would catch one, two, three, and then I'd go to school. I was late — my professor was yelling at me, "Jean-Michel, you're late again." And then in the afternoon I would go and get my octopus, and I would sell them. And my biggest client was the chief of police. 

Well, what does 77-year-old Jean-Michel say to 7-year-old Jean-Michel?

Get wet. I mean, kids are amazing because if you start to show them the opportunities that are there, now today legally, they cannot scuba dive until they're 10 years old, but you can take them snorkeling. You can show them things. 

Do you ever get used to what you see under the ocean? Do you ever forget to appreciate it?

No. You know, one of the obligations we have is to connect. And if I'm somewhere and I feel I don't want to go because I love where I am, I go. 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, any place, and I was in Mexico just recently, and to be able to answer questions to hundreds of kids who have never seen the ocean was, for me, amazing. And they have very good questions, sometimes very challenging, and I love that.

You've seen the beauty of creation. You've seen extraordinary sites that most people will never see in their entire life. Do you believe in a higher power, or do you believe in a creator? Is there a grand plan?

We are the grand plan. As I mentioned earlier, we have the opportunity not to disappear. It's our choice. I'm totally convinced that we cannot use any kind of excuses to not take action ourselves. And whatever one believes in — which is great, and I respect that completely — needs to be connected with reality of everyday life. And make sure that if you're happy, you want to continue being happy. If you have a problem, if you're starving, if you're not happy, other people can help you, and we need to do that. And again, because of this communication revolution, there's no excuse anymore, and we can all, on the planet, have a decent life. That we can make that happen. When you realize that there are up to four to five thousand kids under the age of 5 who are dying every day, every day, every day because they have no access to clean water or enough water, that can change tomorrow. We're not talking about billions of dollars. We talking about making sure they get access to water. Which is the source of all life. So that we can do. And that we are doing, and we will do.

Are we running out of time?

No, time is of the issue because the more we delay, the more difficult it gets, but I don't believe it's too late. [It] may be more and more difficult, but we still can do it. And today, again, if I didn't know about this communication revolution, where — you know, I was in India not very long ago in a room with one gentleman on the computer, and there was 100 people around asking questions not about India but about the rest of the world. So these people know particularly how privileged we are in this country, where 5 percent of the world's population consume 20 percent of the energy, and same thing in Europe, Japan, so we can make a difference. We can change that. We can make it happen. 

At the Olympics, you were actually chosen to carry a flag for the earth. 

I felt very privileged to have been invited to carry the flag to represent the environment, which had never happened before, and that was added to all the other specialties, and that was not only an honor but a dream of mine, because when I was a teenager, I wanted to represent France in the Olympics in the 1,500 meters. 

We've been talking a lot about technology. You conducted an undersea live video chat. You’ve worked with NASA. Share some of that with us.

There's a gentleman who was a biologist with the United States Navy down in San Diego, and he was very concerned about the dolphins and the sound and the effect that it had on the dolphins, and he was studying this, and then he said, my dream is to go in space … Then several year[s] later he called me, and he said, "I'm going in space. Would you like to be there? I'd like you to be there when we're going to take off" … So I went to Florida, and I was there, but prior to that, I said, "If you're going in space, could you honor my dad, who wrote 'The Silent World'? And I have a book, the first book that he ever wrote, that he gave me, and it's signed, Jacques Cousteau. Can you take it up in space, because symbolically for me it, it's a way of connecting 70 percent of the planet to the entire planet as you see it from space." And he said yes. And so he took the book, and I watched them take off, and I'm so excited and honored because when they came back, all the members of the space trip signed the book, and it was certified by NASA. So for me, there's one system, and we're all connected to that system, and to be able to share this with the public, for me, is so important, to realize that we have this amazing privilege of understanding the world we live in and how connected we are.

How much are you getting in the water these days?

Not enough but dozens and dozens. I'll be soon diving for two weeks down in Baja California to work on the new show that we are working on, which is called "Odyssea," which will be presented at the film festival in Cannes next year. And we are also going to go to French Polynesia in July. So I dive, dive, dive, dive, dive, dive, and that's how I recharge my batteries.

How long are you going to keep diving?

Until I get to be 107.

Why 107?

Because I started at 7, and I want to celebrate 100 years of diving.

This interview has been edited and condensed.