Plant a Fish, Jacques Cousteau

Jacques Cousteau…

Jacques Cousteau

Plant a Fish: Jacques Cousteau Ocean Mission Carried on by Grandson.

Born in Atlantic Canada, the wild ocean has always been “just out there” for me — sometimes calm, sometimes seething — always a living place. Blue and green and white, roaring onto rocks and sand. Playground for shorebirds who hunted washed-onshore shell creatures…

Watching Jacques Cousteau and the Calypso and the daring French oceanographers adventuring on and beneath the seas of the world was a stirring glimpse into that world.

Jacques is gone, but others continued his work. Sons Jean-Michel and Philippe. Granddaughter Céline. And his grandson, Fabien.

Here, from Peter Horsfield, is a guest blog telling us about Fabien’s work today.

WHY FABIEN COUSTEAU IS EXTRAORDINARY

The Earth’s living space is 99% water. 97% of our biodiversity is in the water. We couldn’t live without it. Yet, we are hardly doing anything to protect it. Fabien Cousteau has learned to love the water way back as a child, in his adventures with his grandfather and father. Thanks to them, he developed a profound affection for water, enough to vigilantly care for it.

PLANT A FISH

Fabien’s Plant A Fish was launched to help replenish the resources in the waters. For him, it doesn’t make sense that we are using the waters as a garbage can when it is providing us infinite resources.

So Plant A Fish was his way of instilling love of oceans and other bodies of water to the young and old. He has partnered with schools and has so far been successful in planting oysters.

He also plans to plant mangroves and corals as both are key to sustaining aquatic life. This endeavor is quite expensive but in the long run, Fabien believes that it will pay off big time. We are now feeling the depletion of fish.

Aggressive fishing has been a threat to our waters since the 1950’s. If we keep to that direction, there will be hardly anything left for our future generation to enjoy.

Plant A Fish has helped in restoring species in El Salvador, New York City, South Florida, Nicaragua and the Maldives. Work at Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Indonesia, and Washington DC has just begun. They also hope to bring this project to Greece, California, Mozambique, and Nova Scotia.

LIVING UP TO THE JACQUES COUSTEAU LEGEND

Fabien was destined to love the ocean. His grandfather, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, was an oceanographer, a scientist, an environmentalist, a filmmaker, a producer, and an inventor. In short, it was not easy to live up to his legacy. But Fabien is doing all he could to take up where the late Cousteau left off.

Mission 31 was set to dive in 2014. They will be in the world’s only underwater laboratory named Aquarius. It’s a record-breaking feat because the longest mission Aquarius undertook was 18 days.

The seven-man team of which Fabien was the leader will stay 600 feet down Florida Keys for 31 days. His grandfather did it at 300 feet under the Red Sea for 30 days in the 1960’s. Apart from the duration and the depth they planned to brave, Mission 31 will also involve its audience in it exploits by using Skype and the Internet.

They will also be visited by Virgin’s Richard Branson and Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am. With the help of technology and modern Science, Fabien is making environmentalism fun and pressing at the same time.

When we see the reality of his cause, we discover more about the ocean. Understanding makes it easier for us to love the ocean and move us to protect it come hell or high waters.

TOP REASONS WHY FABIEN COUSTEAU IS EXTRAORDINARY

Fabien is the founder of Plant A Fish, an organization that aims to educate and help replenish aquatic resources.
He is the man behind the documentary, “Shark: Mind of a Demon.”
And partnered with his father and sister to produce Ocean Adventures.
He is the program Director of Mission 31, the first underwater exploration that plans to stay underwater for 31 days.
Fabien is the grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a revered oceanographer.
He owns a production company, Bonnet Rouge (Red Hat).
Also has partnered with National Geography, Discovery, CBS, and PBS in making environmental documentaries.
He supports New York Harbor School.
Fabien has spoken at Bloomberg, BLUE, Google Zeitgeist, Sundance, Tribeca Film Festival, DLD, Rio+20, BiF and TEDx (Los Angeles/ New York/ Rio).
He was included in The Daily Muse’s list of 50 Fearless Minds

To read more about Fabien Cousteau and more of Peter Horsfield’s writing about extraordinary people, visit http://www.thextraordinary.org

Live Free, Mon Ami! – Brian Alan Burhoe

UPDATE: On June 1, 2014, Fabien began his Mission 31. Fabien and his team of aquanauts/scientists will live for 31 days under the ocean in their undersea station Aquarius, exploring, discovering and researching ocean conditions, including ecological changes since his grandfather did the same thing 50 years ago. See his own website dedicated to the mission: www.mission-31.com/