What was jacques yves cousteau famous for

In , as part of his research with the French navy, he set a world record after descending to a distance of feet.

Nevertheless, the Aqualung came in handy when he accompanied a group of scientists on an expedition off the coast of Tunisia in Their goal was to explore the Roman shipwreck that lay on the seabed near the town of Mahdia.

Around this time, Cousteau made the acquaintance of British millionaire and philanthropist Thomas Loel Guinness. The member of the famous brewing dynasty also happened to be passionate about the oceans and wanted to help Cousteau realize his dream of making underwater documentaries in whatever way he could. In , Guinness purchased a year-old former car ferry and leased it to his new friend for just one franc per year. The ship was christened Calypso and became as recognized and loved as Cousteau himself.

It was badly damaged in and, following a protracted legal battle, is still being renovated today. In a interview with Time , Cousteau predicted that the medical science would one day exist to allow humans to live underwater.

Little did he know then that we might one day have no choice but to do so. He envisaged a reversible surgery that would give people gills like a fish, capable of extracting oxygen from the water.

It will be the conquest of a whole new world. Cousteau took home his first gong from the Academy Awards in for his landmark documentary The Silent World. The hat trick was completed in with World Without Sun. It seems like nobody could get enough of old Jacques-Yves. In the course of their research, the team invited Fidel Castro on board for dinner. Apparently, the dictator took quite a shine to the Frenchman. So much so that he permitted him to liberate no less than 80 political prisoners.

Cousteau "faced off with General de Gualle in France about the proposed dumping, and he continued to oppose nuclear power," Merriam said. In the end, the train carrying the waste turned back after women and children staged a sit-in on the tracks. Cousteau's films and books could make the ocean seem like a boundless and bountiful wonderland, bursting with life and blessedly isolated.

But the captain himself knew better. By all accounts, Cousteau was not always an ardent environmentalist, nor was he always particularly sensitive to the creatures he was filming in the beginning. Merriam points to a "horrific" scene in The Silent World in which the Calypso collides with a baby sperm whale.

Believing the animal to be near death, the crew shoots the animal—then also shoots sharks that attack the now dead whale. Merriam remembers when The Silent World was remastered about 20 years ago. But "Cousteau said, 'No, no we're not. It was true, and it shows how far we've come and how dreadful humans can be if we don't curtail ourselves,'" she recalled. If Cousteau were alive today, he would probably be saddened by how little has been done to address pollution, overfishing, and other threats to the world's oceans, said Bill Eichbaum, vice president of marine and Arctic policy at World Wildlife Fund WWF , an international conservation organization.

Read why Jacques Cousteau would be "heartbroken" at our seas today —commentary by his son Jean-Michel. But Cousteau wouldn't be discouraged, said Eichbaum, who worked with Cousteau briefly during the s. For her part, the Cousteau Society's Merriam said, "We miss the visionary, and we're glad he set us on the path that we're trying to keep on. All rights reserved. Why is the ocean explorer such a legend? Here are five good reasons.

Jacques Cousteau pioneered scuba gear. Cousteau's underwater documentaries brought a new world to viewers. Cousteau pioneered underwater base camps. Cousteau helped restrict commercial whaling.

Cousteau helped stop underwater dumping of nuclear waste. Here, underwater pioneer Jacques-Yves Cousteau stands next to an historic diving helmet suit at the founding of his Society for the Protection of Ocean Life in Cousteau did a lot to enable divers to move in water with ease - almost like fish - discarding that heavy metal suit, which looked more suited for a medieval knight. At the bottom of the Red Sea in '63, Cousteau keeps up with his small research submarine.

Even then he was able to use underwater radio communications to speak with the submersible's captain. That said, one essential part is missing: He's not wearing a buoyancy-device, which today is considered essential to prevent divers from stirring up sediment or from damaging coral with their fins. An engineer named Emile Gagnan developed this regulator for Cousteau. It had just one stage to reduce air pressure. A disadvantage: The pressure of the air one breathed equaled that at the tip of the tank - not at the mouthpiece.

So when the diver descended head down, he had to actively suck. Ascend head up, and he had to blow. The advantage: Air exited behind the head, which was good for filming. In its time, this submarine must have recalled science fiction movies.

Cousteau developed most of the gadgets for his filming activities himself: underwater casings for his cameras, lights and much more. The Calypso was a present from the Irish Guinness brewery to the underwater researcher. Cousteau equipped it with a helipad and used the cranes for launching his Zodiac boats, submarines, shark cages and other equipment.

Inside, there was space for lab work. And the ship was a permanent film set. Cousteau produced more than movies, bringing the dream of the South Sea into every living room.

This unusual vessel has the name of Cousteau's son, Philippe. He launched it in at the harbor of Le Cap d'Agde in southern France. The submarine could carry eight passengers, and it was designed to be used more as an underwater sightseeing bus than anything else - to convey the beauty of the seas to those who could not dive themselves.

Cousteau presents his underwater research station Precontinent III. Divers could sleep there. It follows a principle that today still applies to professional divers and construction workers in the field of building tunnels: They have to spend long periods under conditions of increased air pressure. If people are under permanent increased pressure, their blood will take in more nitrogen from the air.

Should divers accend too quickly to the surface, this gas would bubble out, just like CO2 from a can of soda.