Under the Sea with Jean-Michel Cousteau: A Legacy of Ocean Conservation and Hope for the Future

Let's make waves as we chat with the esteemed Jean-Michel Cousteau, an icon in oceanography and champion for the seas. As we navigate the enchantment of marine life to the urgency of conservation, Jean-Michel imparts his lifetime of exploration and his father's profound legacy. His innovative approach to education shines through in partnerships with luxury hotels, turning them into platforms for marine awareness. At the same time, his passion for engaging the youth underscores our shared responsibility for the planet's tomorrow.

An unyielding advocate for the ocean's inhabitants, Jean-Michel paints a vivid picture of the underwater world he's called home for nearly eight decades. His dream to continue his subaquatic adventures into his centennial year is more than just a personal milestone; it's a testament to his dedication to preserving our oceans. We delve into the crucial role of species like whales in our ecosystem and how education and global communication can amplify the call to protect these majestic beings. A teaser of his new TV series aimed at supporting Ocean Futures Society promises to be both enlightening and inspiring.

Our heartstrings are tugged as the tale of Keiko the orca reminds us of human activities' profound impact on marine life. The discussion casts a wide net over the threats facing our oceans, from plastics to climate change, while celebrating the efforts to return one extraordinary orca to the wild. Jean-Michel leaves us with an optimistic vision of the future, where sustainability initiatives and education merge to foster a new era of environmental stewardship. His family's legacy, interwoven with his own unwavering commitment, stands as a beacon of hope for the boundless blue that sustains us all.


This episode is sponsored by The Eden Magazine.


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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This Heart of Show Business episode has been brought to you by its sponsor, the Eden Magazine. The Eden Magazine focuses on awareness and educational articles to promote and emphasize humane and environmental content for the next generation of animal lovers. The Eden Magazine is available online and in print to take you to the world of living a healthier, in harmony and cruelty-free world.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Welcome to the Heart of Show Business. I am your host, Alexia Melochi. I believe in great storytelling and that every successful artist has a deep desire to express something from the heart to create a ripple effect in our society. Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together. My guests and I want to give you insider access to how the film, television and music industry works. We will cover dreams come true, the road-less travel journey beginnings and a lot of insight and inspiration in between. I am a successful film and television entrepreneur who came to America as a teenager to pursue my show business dreams. Are you ready for some unfiltered real talk with entertainment visionaries from all over the world? Then let's roll sound and action. Hello to all my listeners of the Heart of Show Business. What a special episode today that I have on my new season, season 5.

Speaker 2: 1:37

As you know, I don't just want to have celebrities on my show. I don't just want to have people talking about themselves in the last movie that they've done, which is great and it's inspiring and educational for a lot of creatives and artists. But what really gets me excited? When I have the honor of sitting down with legends, with people who are trailblazers and game changers in the world who are making a difference and who do I have with me today? I have Jean-Michel Cousteau, who not only is a renowned oceographer, educator, film producer what hasn't he done? But you know, what's really getting into my heart is how much he loves the sea and how important it is that we safeguard it and we protect it. And I am just, of course, he's the first son of Renaud Jean Cousteau, but he's a name on his own and I'm interested to know about Jean-Michel, because he's done great things. And welcome to my show.

Speaker 3: 2:44

Merci. Thank you very, very much for being so nice, and I'm ready to do anything I can to not only answer your questions, but also to do everything we need to do to protect what we depend upon, which is the ocean.

Speaker 2: 3:02

Yes, yes, it is so important and I think you know you're about to have a very big event in Santa Barbara celebrating your career and and of course, there is a lot of Hollywood celebrities who are very outspoken about protecting the oceans and wildlife and everything but, and I'm sure you love meeting them and I'm sure you love it when they come to your events. But what can we do for people to do something about it, to make a change, to make a difference? I know you have a camp for kids that you are educating about anything that has to do with the ocean, but what can people do? Because we're never going to be somebody like you, we're not going to be legends, but it takes a village, right?

Speaker 3: 3:51

Well, everybody can contribute to making sure that the human species will not disappear, and education is critical, and that's why I'm very honored to work with the Witz-Kalbton Hotel in six different locations worldwide and other locations also to communicate with the visitors, the people who come there and to make sure that they have access to information which usually they don't have access to. And, of course, our program is focusing very often on young people, because the young people are the decision makers of tomorrow. Young people are like spongers. They absorb everything. They never forget it. I remember very well because I remember when I was doing, when I was five, six years old. I don't remember what I was doing last week. So it's very important for people to focus on young people because whatever they can absorb or we can share with them will never go away. And very often now I can say because I've done it for many years those young people are communicating with their parents or their friends or their neighbors. And these young people, when they grow up, they become much, much better decision makers.

Speaker 3: 5:27

I would go to jail today if I was doing what I was doing when I was five, six years old in South of France. It was completely illegal but nobody knew, and today we don't. We do, and by knowing, that makes us much better decision makers for the future, and that's why my batteries are recharge all the time and including having the privilege to speak with you because you're going to share some of that with, I hope, a lot of people we want to save the human species and with captain is doing that very much, very helpful and many other locations which I have the privilege of dealing with sitting down with decision makers, whether it's in politics or government, or sitting down with industry, and I never accused them. I never point a finger. If you point a finger that three fingers pointing at you I don't do that. I try to reach the heart and that's why, for me, it's so critical to have the pleasure that you give me to share the questions and the information about the questions that you raise.

Speaker 2: 6:49

Yes, it's so wonderful what you're saying, also because I feel I remember that I read about you that your father threw you in the water, basically at the age of seven, to scuba dive, and the fact that you are creating actual experiences for humans to know what it's like to be in the water with those creatures, versus going, to, say, seaward and watching animals be showcase animals, but actually being amongst them. What do you think is that difference? Because we know that there's been horrible things happen in some of those places and what is the difference between going to a sea world or any other place where you can watch the animals from far and actually being in the ocean and in the wildlife of the ocean?

Speaker 3: 7:43

Well, thanks to my dad and his colleagues, who co-invented the equipment which allowed us to do scuba diving and my father was in the French Navy at the time and with his colleagues, they created that equipment. And that's when, as you said, one day, he put a tank on my back, he pushed me overboard and I became a scuba diver. I've never, never stopped since then. When you're in the ocean, in the water, you're weightless, you can be upside down and it doesn't matter. Maybe that's why I'm 85 and I intend to go until I'm 107, because I want to celebrate 100 years of scuba diving and I will continue for those years to come to share the privilege and the information that I have been able to accumulate, together with my colleagues, my friends, people who care and there are more and more of those people and, of course, we are able to communicate all over the planet. So to me it's a very exciting time, but time is of the issue and the sooner we take care of the ocean, the better off we will make it. There are no other species that can have the privilege that we have to decide not to disappear. It's our choice and I believe we can do it and I believe we will, because today there are four billion plus people that are in communication with each other and we can share with them information, and it's amazing because it can be translated into multiple languages. Let's not forget that the human species is like the ocean. There are many species of whales and dolphins. They all warm-blooded, like us, and we can share that information, but we need to protect them because, in a way, they protect them. And you take the whales, for example, they are the ones who recycle the majority of the CO2 and are very creating the air that we breathe, and much more than we do, and so we need to protect them and that's why we're involved in protecting whales and that's why I'm focusing now on doing a new television series, which, hopefully, will allow us to get the funds that we need. Ocean Futures, as you know, is a not-for-profit company, but we want to do it. If people want to make sure we make it happen. And we want to start with whales, and we started before the catastrophe took place in Maui, hawaii, where the humbuck whales and many other species come, and the mothers with their baby, and we were able now we're able to film them from a drone and see that the mother had a baby this year and she was there. Last year was another baby and we were able to compare the difference between the two babies.

Speaker 3: 11:10

So it's a very exciting time that everybody can learn about and can try to participate in, because they are probably thousands and thousands of species of animals and plants in the ocean which we don't even know about it. What can you protect which you don't understand? And that's what I've learned from my dad when I was a the kid, and I never stop and that's why I dive, dive, dive 78 years, I say right now of scuba diving. Why? Because every time I'm in the water, I see either new species or behavior of animals that I've never seen, or relationship between these animals, or what the plants are doing and depending on the temperature, the wind, the currents and so on. And we're learning, and I'm not the only one there, not thousands of people who are learning and can share that with their family and schools or in governments. So I'm a very exciting time with what is happening and I believe that the human species will make that happen.

Speaker 2: 12:27

Yes, and I love that you are using entertainment and show business.

Speaker 2: 12:32

Of course, you have so many awards as a producer and for both series and films, because every single piece of the visual image that you produce is about wildlife, it's about the oceans, is about the sea and I have no doubt, with so many shows coming out of Nat Geo and Disney and everything, there's so much more curiosity about that world God bless them all that I have no doubt that getting to know more about whales and getting to more about the future productions that you're going to be doing, you will get the support.

Speaker 2: 13:12

I really believe that. And if I can help you through this podcast and, of course, in a magazine, god bless them, because they've been your supporters since day one. And so if we can help spread the world, which is done through entertainment and experience and I think you're doing both you're creating the experiences with the camp, with the resort, with the partnerships, with the Ritz Carton, and then you're also doing the entertainment part, which is the film and television. So I am very, very excited. Let me ask you something If you were to be reborn as a sea creature, as a creature of the sea, if you were to be born again, what would you choose?

Speaker 3: 14:03

Immediately orca. Orca is the biggest of the dolphins they have been created, being called killer whales. That's wrong, but the orcas are the most sophisticated creature in the ocean. They are in every ocean, between 70% of the planet, much more than we are, and they communicate that different communication system, which is their primal sense. And, of course, smell is very important, and that's when they make mistakes, and vision comes when the water is clear. So I would love to be an orca and communicate with the other families on the planet because they are in charge of the entire ocean.

Speaker 3: 15:04

I'm only involved in 30% of the land, so I could help more, but that's my dream because I've been observing orcas and that's when we created a film a long time ago and thanks to this financial support that we got from people who wanted to help, we've been able to get and be part of a team that took an orca which was in jail in Mexico, mexico City, up in the altitude, and it was taken down to Oregon in a truck. And in Oregon we were invited and we spent four years there to make sure that he was doing very well and his name is Keiko, and that became part of the film that was made and ultimately, we were able to continue filming and following and one day, thanks to the United States Air Force, they landed in Oregon. We were able to put Keiko after he was feeling much better and was able to be independent and so on, to put him inside the airplane, and I had the privilege of being invited to be with Keiko and many other people when the plane took off. And because the plane could not go all the way to Iceland, where Keiko had been captured when he was a baby, we had to in the airplane as we were flying to get more oil fuel in order to keep flying, and that, to me, was an amazing experience. And ultimately, we ended up in Iceland and Keiko was transferred to a place in a bay where we made sure he was protected and we took care of him and we had and I say we, it's a team, it's not me, it's a team of people who have the experience and know what to do with these animals and how to behave.

Speaker 3: 17:27

My goal was to film with my team and to make sure we were sharing it, and we were able to get on a plane, for example, when we had to go back to Iceland to see what was going on and one day we found out that, okay, keiko can be released and he'd been taken out to the ocean and reconnected with other orcas which were part of the family from which he came out when he was captured as a little baby.

Speaker 3: 18:03

And here we were, back in the water and I was with my better half on a Sunday at 10 o'clock in the morning I will never forget and we were together with other orcas and Keiko started connecting with them and he was diving. He was going to 100 feet if he wanted to and he would come back up and he had transmission, so we always knew where he was and he connected ultimately with other orcas and at 10 o'clock that morning, the whole group of orcas left and started going to the east and up north, and that, to me, was, uh, it was the most exciting time to see that we need to release the most intelligent, the most sophisticated creatures and make sure we stop putting them in jail and, uh, this is anti-educational and we are trying to help, whether it's in France or in the United States, or in China or wherever, uh, japan, where we know that there are many of these marine mammals in captivity, and we want to help them, release them, so the people that they're connecting with will continue to learn about what these creatures represent and what they can do and are connected. We are to them and to the life which we depend upon, which is the ocean. So it's a very exciting time, sometimes very difficult, because we need the support that we gain, and that's why I'm so honored to have the, the Witz, carlton Bakar, here in Santa Barbara, california, inviting me on the 10, 11 and 12 for three days to celebrate and to award me, and I'm very excited because welcome reception cocktails will be there with uh.

Speaker 3: 20:18

I will, of course, make presentation, and then on Saturday, the year 11, uh, I will be hiking and also making presentations with my colleagues and I will celebrate 70 years of scuba diving, which would be the beginning of a show I'd like to do for a television series, if we can find support from sponsors. And then the following day, on the Sunday, a great, great, very, very nice lady has made a boat available for us to be on and will be on the, the Koldorexpress boat, going into the ocean and looking for whatever is in the ocean dolphins, maybe, whales, maybe I don't know, who knows sea lions and it's amazing, so that is so beautiful.

Speaker 2: 21:14

That is so, jamisha. I have a question because you know, you don't know what are the problems of humans when it comes to preserving or protecting sea life? Which one do you think is a single most grave problem? Is it plastics? Is it ocean spells? Is it climate change and the changing of the temperature of the water? Which which one do you think is the one that is creating the most damage, or are they all creating the same damage?

Speaker 3: 21:51

we are the ones who are creating the most damage and we need to never forget that. One of our primary senses vision. So we're very sensitive to what we see a plastic or whatever. What about chemicals? What about you take a tablet of aspirin because you have a headache? Hopefully it works.

Speaker 3: 22:19

Where's that chemical going? Ultimately right into the ocean. And it goes with heavy metals. So we need to treat those waters before it gets into the ocean, because the public and I have the privilege of living near the ocean, but a lot of billion, millions and millions of people don't live near the ocean. We're all connected to the ocean. If you see snow on top of a mountain, it's the ocean. If you're skiing, you're skiing on the ocean, and if you're drinking a glass of water, you're drinking the ocean. It all goes into the ocean, it evaporates, it creates clouds and it creates rain and storms and everything that lately we've been behaving, and so we need to learn all of that and start our behavior and we can to stop dumping everything and thinking that you know the ocean will take care of it we can do it.

Speaker 3: 23:25

It's an exciting time. Education education is very critical and they have opportunities that are slowly being created now where this is going to happen and it's just like energy. You know the oil we take from the ocean is a big mistake, but there are many other ways to replace that ultimately, not only with the wind and the sun. But I have a friend who showed me how we can take advantage of the currents and the water the currents can make, can create energy, because the same energy that is created by the currents because water is not compressible is three rotations per minute to a propeller that goes as efficient as the propeller in the air which makes energy and is being tested. That those propellers and the water to create some of the energy.

Speaker 3: 24:35

And the fish can go right through it, or even a marine mammal you had a dolphin going right through it that they couldn't ignore it. Three rotations per minute, you ignore it. We don't even know it's moving. So we have opportunities, we can create new ways and I'm very excited and very positive. And sometimes you know it's tough because you have to deal with people who want to make money now, now, now they want to be successful now, but they have a heart. Most of them have families. They have children, grandchildren and if they do care about them. But we want to help them and we are there to do that and sometimes they work very well.

Speaker 2: 25:25

Well, I know that with Ocean Futures obviously Ocean Futures is doing so many things and I read that you have an architecture degree because you have a dream of building a city underneath the waters. Do you think that's possible? Will we be able to have the first, say, underwater hotel, to start to be able to show people what it's like to live underneath? Because you're going to build it, You're the architect.

Speaker 3: 25:57

When I was a kid, my father co-invented the equipment and we started diving. And that's when one day I woke up I said I'd like to stay there. I want to spend time and see what's going on. So I said to my parents I said I want to become an architect. And they said if you want to be, go for it. And I said but you know, I want to build cities under water. And they said well, maybe that will happen one day. Why don't you start doing that? So I'm a licensed architect in the European Union and I built, designing and supervise the construction of six schools in Madagascar and I went to check them out and they're fine, and I helped in other places. But then one day my dad said I need your help because I don't know the Indian Ocean and you've been diving in Madagascar all the way around that place. And I said sure, and I started helping him and Kalibso went out there and I got up.

Speaker 3: 27:15

I was completely absorbed with the family and my mother was living on the ship and we had a team of people I loved and I miss many of them because I was very young and ultimately I was able to bring my children, fabia and Celine and many of my colleagues. Some of them are still around today, like Dr Richard Murphy, holly Loheis and Nan Nancy and on and on and on. And you know, for me I'm amazed because there are people who are building structures. My father did that, my mother did that. She was in one of the habitats for a long time. I went to visit many of them and then my son wanted to spend time where one of these underwater habitat was in the US and that's where the astronauts go to spend time, to experience being weightless and live in a confined environment. So we were invited. Dr Richard Murphy wanted to go, but Dr Sylvia Earle, famous star marine biologist, who is an amazing lady who's done a lot to communicate with the public, and I we were invited in that underwater house which had been set aside where my son was, and he's the one who spent 31 days down there and we went to see him and we filmed all of that.

Speaker 3: 29:07

Everything went very well and that kept him and many other people now wanting to build structures which will allow people to stay underwater. And for me it's not so much the technical aspect of it, because we know what needs to be done, but it's to be able to be there and observe nature and find out how these plants and animals communicate, because we have to understand that any plants and animals on land and plants and animals in the ocean kind of connect or communicate and depend upon each other just like we do, and so we need to learn. How can people take it if you don't understand? Well, we want to learn more, and having underwater habitat is a way where tens of thousands of people are going to do it in the next few years. I wish I was 20.

Speaker 2: 30:03

Well, you have a long way ahead of you, because I love I was going to ask you about how this life purpose is tied to longevity, but clearly I love that you're planning to live to 107. God bless you. It is possible and it is very realistic because so that you can celebrate the 100 years of scuba diving and I mean I could talk to you all day. I mean, all I have to say is that please I'm going to be dropping in the show notes support Ocean Futures, support what the organization is doing. There's so much that you can find in there, from swag to expeditions to trips, to movie productions, to education. It's all on the website. This is the beauty of the internet and the technology.

Speaker 2: 30:55

As we discussed, and you know, as a side note, we're making a movie.

Speaker 2: 31:00

Well, it was going to happen before the pandemic, but then, of course, a pandemic happened, which is called Galleon, and it's about an underwater Spanish galleon that is found off of the coast of Australia, 100 meters below, and it deals with giving awareness about the ocean plates that are shifting and moving because of climate change, and so we're giving entertainment, but we also want to give education, and I love what you said.

Speaker 2: 31:28

You're discovering new species that are coming from the depth right. So I would like to conclude this podcast with reminding everyone that there is a saying as above so below does not necessarily just apply to heaven and earth, but it also applies to the life below us, in the ocean is just as valuable as the life on land, and I think this as above so below should apply into having us all more conscious and more aware and having conversations, having the kids become aware, check out all the incredible productions of Jean-Michel Cousteau and everything that he's done and everything that he's been doing. I would like to say thank you for coming on and, if there is anything that you feel we can do as a first step, what would you recommend as a first step? Parkour.

Speaker 3: 32:36

Thank you very emotional, but you're very kind and and I really look forward to work to the near future and our educational program with the Wittgarten and many other locations on Catalan Island where we have a family camp where people have been coming there some of them for 23 years every summer when we have a program going on, and then many other locations, and I want to make sure that people realize that that we all depend on that environment and part of us is the ocean.

Speaker 3: 33:16

A certain percentage of it is the ocean liquid and I want to work. I want to make sure, symbolically, that we are changing and the time has come to view the captivity of whales and dolphins as part of our past and not a tragic part of our future. It's a very exciting times and there are a lot of people and I have very good friends and who are working very much to make sure that we protect them and we see certain populations coming back, we helping the fishing industry to fish in the right place another one place and catch, because every species is the capital and we can only take some of the interest produced by the capital and if you take more than the interest, you're heading toward bankruptcy. You don't want to go there. Nobody wants to go there. So education is critical, and that's why I'm so excited to be able to do that, and I will never stop. Protect the ocean and you protect yourself.

Speaker 2: 34:35

I am so honored and blessed that you have come and looked forward to meeting you very soon, hopefully in Santa Barbara, and to promote your work and create awareness, and I love that you're hopeful about humanity as I am, which is why I created my podcast. It's the heart of show business. If we all connect to our heart, I believe we can make the word a better place.

Speaker 3: 35:01

So thank you so much for coming we I want to say one thing because emotionally I cannot forget it I was in Maui, hawaii, where a horrible hurricane came, but recently a fire started destroying thousands of people, destroying thousands of homes, and people had to move and people some people died, some people have disappeared and I've been spending a lot of time there and there is a Witz-Kalton hotel over there that is shut down now because they cannot take care of visitors and they need to take care of the employees and the 600 and some employees which I've known because I spent a lot of time over there when we were starting filming the amazing whales getting together.

Speaker 3: 36:03

And we need to help and that's what I want to do and I'm doing a lot of efforts right now to raise funds separately for motion futures or Wizz-Ocean Futures, but I want 100% of that money to go to those people and to help them, because it's so hard, it's hard devastating, and we can do it, we can change it and we are able to do it. So I'm sorry to bother you because I didn't want to.

Speaker 2: 36:35

No, bless you, bless you. No, bless you, bless you, and we'll definitely put in the link of the donation link into our show notes. We have to support Maui. We have to help Maui. Hawaii is one of the last places of paradise on earth, as is Fiji, of course, and so many others, and it's tragic what has happened, and I love that you care so much to also care about the people, because, of course, it's humans and it's wildlife. We're all connected. So, thank you, thank you for coming on my show and I look forward to seeing you and meeting you in person.

Speaker 2: 37:15

If you enjoyed this episode, everyone, please subscribe, rate and review, and please go to Ocean Futures website, go to the Ritz Carton website, find out more about the event, come and attend the event. If you can donate, donate to Maui, donate to anything that speaks to your heart, and thank you especially to the Eden Magazine for being so kind to making this connection and allowing me to have the honor to having you. Thank you very much, jean-michel. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Heart of Show Business. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can also subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast player if you have any questions or comments or feedback for us, you can reach me directly at the heart of showbusinesscom.