Jacques Cousteau

Jacques Cousteau

Jacques-Yves Cousteau – Life and Legacy
Jacques Cousteau was an explorer like no other before him.   He was a pioneer in underwater exploration whose inventions, feature films, and passion as an environmentalist and conservationist helped to bring the world under the sea into the public eye and to the forefront of global issues.   As a true explorer of a previously undiscovered world beneath the oceans, it is important to look at his motivation for exploration and conservation, the impact that he had on the world during his lifetime, and the legacy he has left through his work, his foundation, and his family.
Cousteau became fascinated with the water at age 26.   After a car accident left both his arms severely damaged, his doctor prescribed swimming therapy for him to recover strength in his arms (Sobel, 2001, p.18).   A friend loaned him a pair of goggles and for the first time, he could clearly see the untouched beauty under the water, and he felt his life had changed (Sobel, 2001, p.18).   He explained in an interview that when his eyes were opened up to the sea, he knew that day that his life was going to head down a different path and he felt very fortunate to recognize that it was happening (Late, great geographers, 2000 p. 91).  
Initially it was his love of the ocean and passion for diving that motivated him to explore the depths.   Cousteau experimented with different types of devices, trying to find some way to breathe underwater without being tethered to anything at the surface (Sobel, 2001, p. 18).   While serving in the French navy during World War II, he met a man named Emile Gagnon who had previously worked on industrial gas equipment for automobiles.   Cousteau and Gagnon worked together to develop the aqualung, a type of valve which allowed small amounts of air, one breath at a time, to be distributed to a diver from a tank underwater (Cousteau, 2008, para. 4). The aqualung allowed him to explore deeper and for longer periods of time than ever before...