On June 11,1910, in Saint Andre-de-Cubzac, Jacques-Yves Coutsteau was born. Cousteau went to school at a public school until he grew bored with it and broke 17 of the schools windows. They kicked him out for being a trouble maker. Cousteau went to France's Naval Academy. From there he went into aviation but a near-fatal car accident denied him his wings. Because of this he was transferred to sea duty. he strengthened his arms, weakened by the accident, by swimming. In the mid-1940's Cousteau perfected the aqua lung, which gave him the nickname "man fish", with the help of engineer Emile Gagman. The aqua lung was an underwater breathing apparatus that supplied oxygen to the diver. With this he made his first underwater film. He made a series on PBS called Cousteau Odyssey and another one seven years later called Cousteau Amazon on Tuner Broadcasting Network. For all his documentaries, 40 Emmy nominations were awarded. His work in film also awarded him 2 Academy Awards for best documentary. Cousteau wrote many books which include The Living Sea (1963), Dolphins (1975), and Jacques Cousteau: The Ocean World(1985). Cousteau, in the 1970's, formed an environmental group called the Cousteau Society, which is based in Norfolk, VA. He also had many critics. Biographers and many others said that he mistreated animals in the making of his films. This didn't stop Jacques Cousteau who, after his first ship, the Calypso sank off the coast of Singapore, started to build the Calypso II. Cousteau's love for the ocean changed the way we look at it. Jacques Cousteau died on Wednesday, June 26,1997. he was 87 at the time of death.

Jacques Cousteau, a great marine biologist and underwater explorer, was the choice for my biography for many reasons. Since I was a little kid I loved the Oceanian all the things in it. Jacques Cousteau was the one who helped me and the rest of the world discover the oceans beautiful treasures. He opened a world no one know about. His discoveries helped me learn about the ocean and now it's my turn to help the world learn about him. Cousteau created the aqua lung and Diving Saucer, both meant for underwater exploration. The aqua lung, able only to dive down 60 ft. and the Diving Saucer able to dive down 1000 ft. These depths may not seem like alot today and are nothing compared to what we go to today, but back then it was a race to get to those depths. Russia was working hard but France beat them thanks to the Diving Saucer and Cousteau in 1959. with the brain in his head, Cousteau knew he could prove any thing. One of the things he tried to prove to people was that it was possible for a man to stay underwater, for a month, under pressure and still be healthy. This he did with a crew of Oceanuats and a camera. During one of these tests a man named Maurice Fargues signaled, at 300 ft., that all was well- then there was no further signal. The air tube was taken from his mouth by the raptures of depth and he drowned. This is how the book and film, titled the same, World Without Sun came to be. The book was like a journal of Cousteau's during the experiment and the time and the Oceanuats. It had color pictures and everything. Cousteau's work and theories were excepted by many but he had his critics and those who doubted him. Without the aqua lung, the advanced scuba gear we have today would not be so advanced nor would we probably have scuba diving. Thanks to Cousteau we have a way to explore the underwater deep ourselves instead of having other people do it for us while we just sit and watch movies and read books about it. Also if it weren't for him we wouldn't know so much about the underwater world. Of course just like the aqua lung the Diving saucer has been improved by modern technology. Continuing his work would be a challenge, like trying to become Einstein in one day in my mind. It would be a long hard challenge to finish it. Cousteau's oldest son, Jean-Michael Cousteau has continued his work to build the Calypso II, in which Jacques Cousteau died before finishing. In August 1969 Cousteau warned," If we continue to ignore the problems of air and water pollution we are committing suicide. Many are relying on the ocean to save the world from starvation. But unless a solution to pollution problems can be found the oceans may become barren ." He also said," Although this deep sea rapture makes one fell carefree and happy", he said " he feared it like doom." " Primitive man fear greatly the watery medium of the earth's oceans", was once written by Cousteau.

Jacques Cousteau shaped the world in many ways. His works, the diving saucer, the aqua lung, and all the ocean research. Today without his work we would not know so much about the underwater world. We wouldn't be able to see it and explore it for ourselves if it wasn't for him. The diving saucer is something like what we used today to explore he remains of the Titanic. If Jacques Cousteau hadn't been around I don't think the world would have had as much knowledge about the underwater world and it's inhabitants as we do now. France would probably still be racing against the other countries to get to the bottom of the ocean. Russia may have already made it down but the other countries would be racing to find all of Russia's flaws. We might not be able to scuba dive because Jacques Cousteau pretty much created scuba diving when he created the aqua lung. The fun diving past time that some people do for a living may not be around today. Jacques Coutsteau had a very good life and is recognized as an important man in his time and in ours. If he hadn't have invented and researched like he did we definitely wouldn't be where we are today. No diving , no underwater treasures, it would all be pretty still a mystery to us except for the fact that we can fish in the ocean, it's deep, and people die at sea. If Jacques Cousteau were still alive today I think he would be finishing the Calypso II and still be exploring the deep. He may have been a very old man but his spirit was like that of a young child along with his heart. His son Jean-Michael Cousteau maybe would have been working with him. Like father like son some might say. Many people regret his death and his family deeply saddened. Our lives would have been so different without him. Jacques Cousteau received awards and nominations for his documentary's and films. Cousteau's books World Without Sun and The Silent World were both made into films. Silent World was a best seller in twenty-two different countries. Cousteau wrote many more books though, mostly about the ocean. " I am convinced ," he wrote " that the main goal for the future of underwater exploration is not the discovery of new sources of inspiration. And, of course, we need better submarines, better lungs, better filling mixtures, but above all, we need scientists to understand, and poets, painters, architects, philosophers to express it. We need a thousand new words forged by imaginative people. We need to reform our way of thinking about the sea. We need to return to the sea." Cousteau understood the meaning of "A picture is worth a thousand words." Maybe he came up with it Another sentence that may be describing the common phrase. Cousteau said," It was an eerie studio in which we operated. Down From the brilliant surface we would glide, past the cliff dwellings of a thousand fish into the dusk 150 to 175 feet below. Grottoes opened out from the sea wall, dim and inviting. The utter silence of the depths lay upon us like a benediction."