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Jean-Michel Cousteau: A Life for The Water Planet

Jean-Michel Cousteau has spent his life with his family exploring the world's oceans aboard the research vessels Calypso and Alcyone, communicating to people of all nations and generations his love and concern for our water planet. The eldest son of the late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel was born in Toulon, France, in 1938.

As President of Ocean Futures Society, Jean-Michel continues his life's work of educating, especially the young people of the world. Ocean Futures Society is a non-profit organization that is the result of the merger in March 1999 of the Jean-Michel Cousteau Institute and the Free Willy Keiko Foundation. By developing marine education programs, conducting research, and fostering a conservation ethic for our water planet, Ocean Futures will bring the following critical marine issues to the public's attention: Protecting and Understanding Marine Mammals, Protecting and Improving Water Quality, Protecting and Preserving Coral Reefs, Protecting and Restoring Coastal Habitats, and Promoting Fisheries Management. Ocean Futures is the caretaker for Keiko, the whale star of the movie, Free Willy, who has been relocated back to his home-waters of Iceland and is presently being rehabilitated by Ocean Futures for his potential reintroduction back into the wild. It is also the educational and scientific coordinator for Deep Ocean Odyssey, an action-adventure and digital media company that will explore the world's oceans in manned submersibles to depths of up to 3,300 feet. Jean-Michel is both a co-founder and producer for Deep Ocean Odyssey.

A graduate of the Paris School of Architecture, Jean-Michel is a member of the Ordre National des Architectes, the French counterpart of the American Institute of Architects. His work demonstrates a flair for infusing the functional with a new vision and he has collaborated on artificial floating islands, schools, a residential and recreational complex in Madagascar, and the headquarters of an advanced marine studies center in Marseilles, France. In 1969, Jean-Michel headed the team that transformed a 100,000 square foot section of the former ocean liner, Queen Mary, into the Living Sea Museum in Long Beach, California. He was a member of the selection committee for the International NASA/AIA Space Station design competition in 1972. He also directed the design and development of the Parc Oceanique Cousteau in Paris, a public attraction that introduced new ways of teaching visitors about the ocean realm without captive animals. He is actively involved with the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort, an environmentally and culturally concerned family resort putting into practice, and proving to the business community, the economic benefits of exercising environmental concern.

In the mid-1960s, Jean-Michel began organizing the logistics for the award-winning television film series, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, and has served as Executive Producer for the films Jacques Cousteau: The First 75 Years, Cousteau's Amazon, and Cousteau/Mississippi. Jean-Michel was awarded for the Cousteau Amazon series the prestigious Peabody Award, the Ace Award, and the 7 d'Or, the French equivalent of the Emmy. Jean-Michel has been the Producer and/or Executive Producer of sixty-one television specials, including the thirty-nine part series, Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World, from which several programs were nominated for the Emmy and Cable Ace Awards, and the 7 d'Or. He also served as Executive Vice President of the Cousteau Society from 1979 to 1993, and is a Founder of both The Cousteau Society and Equipe Cousteau, the Society's French sister company. Jean-Michel is one of the few individuals to be recognized as an "Environmental Hero" by the Clinton Administration.

Jean-Michel is an impassioned, eloquent spokesman for the environment. Since 1989, he has been a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times where his articles appear in over sixty newspapers worldwide. Jean-Michel travels the globe lecturing to tens of thousands of students every year and addressing influential industry groups and prestigious forums such as the Dive Equipment Marketing Association (DEMA), the Commonwealth and National Press Clubs, and the Young Presidents Organization.

Jean-Michel Cousteau is now dedicating his energy to guiding the Ocean Futures Society into one powerful "Voice For The Ocean."