Jean-Michel Cousteau, 'My Father, The Captain'

From Express Night Out (article)

According to Jean-Michel Cousteau, eldest son of legendary underseas explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, "The world is upside down."

When it comes to environmentalism, "children know a lot more than their parents," the 72-year-old Cousteau said. And he knows what he's talking about: Cousteau began his career in marine exploration at the age of 7, when his father outfitted him with an early version of scuba gear and tossed him overboard off the coast of France.

"The best thing he did for my late brother [Philippe] and me was to take us out and get us wet, get us in the environment, get us to feel the sea and to sense nature," Cousteau said, speaking by phone from Santa Barbara, Calif. "We were extremely privileged because this was 60, 65 years ago."

Even as a child, Cousteau could tell the planet was in trouble. "My frustration ... was to see that there were fewer and fewer fish and more and more garbage at the bottom of the sea," he recalled. "That made me want to dedicate my life to communicating with the public."

Cousteau followed in his father's footsteps to become an acclaimed environmentalist, educator, filmmaker and founder of the non-profit Ocean Futures Society. His memoir, "My Father, The Captain," is a more personal form of outreach. In it, he reflects upon his unconventional upbringing and his parents' legacies (Cousteau's mother, Simone, was the world's first female scuba diver).

The book — which expands on Cousteau's 2004 French memoir — was published to mark the centennial of Jacques Cousteau's birth in June. It's an intimate look at the man who first brought marine life into the living rooms of millions of Americans in the 1960s, and who fought tirelessly to open the eyes of the world to the oceans' dwindling natural resources.

Cousteau said that, were his father alive today, he'd have the same sense of urgency about environmental issues. His likely response to this summer's catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? "My father would have said, 'I told you so.' And he did, on several occasions in the past. He went to a commission in 1972 where he said, 'If in 20, 30, 50 years from now, we haven't changed, it will be too late.' Well, we have 12 more years and we want to make sure we change. I think we can."

"My father used to say, 'People protect what they love,' and what we're trying to do is to make people appreciate, enjoy and care," he said. "And they will do the right thing."

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