Jacques Yves Cousteau

Well known oceanographer, explorer, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, author and researcher was also a French Naval officer, conservationist and explorer was born on June 11, 1910 In Girone, France. Jacques Cousteau developed the Aqua-Lung and pioneered marine conservations. He was a member of the Academie francaise. Cousteau is credited with the beginnings of the open-circuit scuba technology used today. His first book The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure in 1953 revealed that Cousteau started diving with Fernez goggle in 1936 and in 1939 used a self-sufficient underwater breathing device invented in 1926. He improved the breathing device by installing a regulator. This aqua lung made underwater exploration possible.
In 1949 Cousteau left the Navy and in 1950 he founded the French Oceanographic Campaigns and leased the Calypso for one franc a year. He refitted the Calypso as a laboratory for ocean research and his vessel for diving and filming. He carried undersea archeological excavations in the Mediterranean. Cousteau predicted the echolocation ability of porpoises. He concluded that cetaceans has sonar which was a relatively new concept.
The television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau ran for ten years and his second series The Cousteau Odyssey ran from 1977 to 1982. In 1970 Cousteau wrote The Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea. In 1973 he created the Cousteau Society for the Protection of Ocean Life and in 1975 he filmed Voyage au bout de monde in Antarctica.
Cousteau uncovered the HMHS Britannic and the 17th century French La Therese in Crete. His successor and co-producer Philippe Cousteau was killed in a boating accident. His son Jean-Michel Cousteau then worked with his father.
Cousteau became a regular consultant for the UN, the World Bank and the International Conference on Environment and Development. In 1996 his ship, Calypso was sunk in Singapore by a barge. The Calypso was repaired and towed to France. Jacques Yves Cousteau passed away on June 25, 1997 he was 87. You can see the results of Cousteau's explorations in his museum in Monaco. Cousteau was married to Simone Melchior Cousteau from 1937 until 1990 when she died. They had two sons. He married Francine Triplet Cousteau in 1991 until his death in 1994. They had two children.