David Wolper dies

Producer David Wolper died in Los Angeles on August 10 at the age of 82. A major force in the television industry, Wolper was key to the introduction of “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” to American audiences in 1966. According to longtime friend Art Buchwald, Wolper and Captain Cousteau, who had previously co-produced a documentary for National Geographic, developed the idea for the television specials during a visit at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, where Cousteau was director. “For the first time,” says Wolper, “television was not simply an outside observer of an important event—television was an integral part of the event.” The power of film to transmit true tales from the ocean world began a new era for the medium.

NOAA Issues Summary Report of Oil Fate

As soon as a “top kill” operation apparently stopped the flow of oil from the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico, the US government agency leading the response to the devastating blowout issued a five-page update on the oil. (See the entire report HERE). According to the findings, a total of 4.9 million barrels of oil escaped from the well, making it the second largest spill ever. A pie chart shows that 25% of the total was removed by burning, skimming or direct recovery; 25% naturally dissolved or evaporated; 24% dispersed, naturally or chemically; 26% remains as surface sheen and tar balls or has washed ashore and been disposed of. Despite the soothing spin of the report—repeated assurances that the oil is biodegrading, that numerous scientists are working on assessment and that agencies are continuing to monitor—there are virtually no data nor references to data that could be verified by independent researchers. Government promises of transparency have been smothered by red tape and legal restrictions that continue to hamper access to sites or information. The report has been received with little confidence in its accuracy and a great deal of demand for more.

Expedition reveals changes at sites where Jacques-Yves Cousteau first filmed underwater 65 years ago

BARCELONA, Spain (July 2, 2010)—The Cousteau Society and National Geographic scientists and filmmakers returned today from their flagship expedition aboard Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s legendary vessel Alcyone, which has been documenting the Mediterranean now — and in the past.

The Cousteau Society presents extracts from the remarkable book World Ocean Census: A Global Survey of Marine Life, which is an insider's description of the comprehensive Census of Marine Life and what it reveals about a seriously threatened ecosystem.

Adaptation to climate change

Researchers have used 33 years of data on a population of yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado to explain, step by step, how climate change can affect animal life. Over that time frame, the rodents have been waking from hibernation and giving birth earlier in the spring. As a result, the marmots have more time to fatten up before going into hibernation for the winter. That means greater fitness and higher survival rates. The mean body mass for adults (2+ years old) increased from 6.8 pounds to 7.6 pounds. This was associated with an accelerated population increase, dominated by older individuals, from an average of .56 marmots per year between 1976 and 2001 to an average of 14.2 marmots per year subsequently.

Shipwreck Exploration Yields Oldest Champagne

In a moment reminiscent of the Cousteau team’s taste of a 2,000-year-old Greek wine a half-century ago, (“a poor vintage,” wrote Captain Cousteau), seven Swedish divers may have unearthed the world’s oldest drinkable champagne while exploring a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. Looking for a clue to the ship’s age or identity, the divers brought up one of about 30 bottles they found lying nearby. When they tasted the contents, they were delighted to find out that it was a drinkable, sweet bubbly wine. The cold, calm conditions of the seafloor 180 feet down helped preserve it. The bottle is unlabeled but the cork is marked with an anchor, which has led to speculation that the wine is a Veuve Cliquot made by Moët & Chandon. The exact location of the remaining bottles is being kept a secret until they are recovered. Meanwhile authorities are trying to sort out who has legal claim to the wreck: it lies near the Aland Islands between Sweden and Finland.

World Ocean Census - Extract 24 - The demise of the great sharks

Ecologists have long understood that a reduction in predators affects the entire food web, that complex network of interactions between plants and animals that tells us who is eating what or whom. Census researchers investigating this premise determined that loss of predator species from oceanic food webs can cause long-lasting changes in the ecosystem that may be irreversible.

Oil spill: Harte Institute seeks lessons from the past

BP has completed installation of a capping stack on the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico and oil has stopped gushing for the first time since April 20. This latest and tentatively successful attempt closed the flow over more than week of cautious testing and is being closely monitored for signs that the well’s integrity could be compromised. Progress inches toward a mid-August completion of relief wells that are expected to be a permanent solution.

Only porbeagle sharks win trade protection at CITES.

Sharks, like bluefin tuna and red and pink corals, failed to gain the necessary three-quarters majority required to restrict their trade on international markets. The CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) meeting in Doha, Qatar, denied proposals to protect the oceanic whitetip, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, dusky, sandbar and spiny dogfish sharks.

Thousands of whales saved from whalers

The Cousteau Society spoke in the name of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who would be 100 years old this month of June 2010, during the plenary session the International Whaling Commission, on Thursday, June 24. The Cousteau Society called for the Commission to focus on its conservation-related work, which has achieved brilliant success while, historically, the IWC has failed miserably at regulating whaling.

Oil spill : Fallibility of human technology strikes again!

Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatens human and marine life.

Cousteau Centennial – Tribute from Brazilian Congress

The National Congress of Brazil pays unanimous homage to the work of Captain Jacques Cousteau on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
The National Congress of Brazil presented to Francine Cousteau the Legislative Medal of Merit, the institution’s highest distinction.

100th Anniversary of Captain Cousteau’s birth

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910, in Saint André de Cubzac, Gironde in France. One hundred years later, we are celebrating the anniversary of the man who made an indelible impression on our planet and its oceans.

When Captain Cousteau and his crew set sail on Calypso to explore the world, no one knew yet about the effects of pollution on marine ecosystems, of over-exploitation on resources and of manmade destruction on coastal zones.

The adventures of Calypso were captured on film and drew the public’s attention to the ecological disasters caused by human negligence. Captain Cousteau, through his work and his life, was a leader in environmental awareness. He left it to the Cousteau Society and Equipe Cousteau, the two not-for-profit organizations he founded, to continue his mission.

US Congress honors Captain Cousteau.

The US House of Representatives agreed 354-0 to Resolution 518 “honoring the life of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, explorer, researcher, and pioneer in the field of marine conservation,” on June 8, 2010. The Resolution was introduced by Representative Ilena Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, with 13 cosponsors, in time for the 100th anniversary of Captain Cousteau’s birth.

World Ocean Census - Extract 23 - Visualizing the invisible

Technological advances have made it possible to identify new life-forms that only a few years ago were virtually impossible to see. A revolutionary new DNA technique, 454 tag sequencing, requires only small snippets of genetic code to identify an organism. With its help, Census scientists have revealed that the diversity of marine microbes may be some 10 to 100 times greater than expected.

Worldwide Centennial Celebrations Of Jacques Cousteau’s Birth Begin

Year-long plan includes re-launch of iconic vessel Calypso for marine education tour; new Cousteau Divers program

Documentary with National Geographic to contrast conditions in Mediterranean today with Cousteau’s films of the 1940s

Legendary marine explorer, inventor, innovator, filmmaker and environmental activist Jacques Cousteau was born June 11, 1910 in Saint André de Cubzac, a small town in southwest France.

To mark the centennial of his birth, the Cousteau Society is launching a year-long celebration in Paris with Cousteau’s global legion of admirers, and welcomes proposals from around the world .

The re-launch and tour of Calypso, the ship aboard which Cousteau created many of the world’s first glimpses of deep-sea life, will highlight the end of the centennial in 2011.

A Global Survey of Marine Life in a book

The Census of Marine Life was launched in 2000 with the goal of producing the first-ever ocean census by 2010. Two thousand scientists from 82 nations agreed to the mandate to answer three important questions:

* What once lived in the global ocean?
* What is living there now?
* What will live there in the future?

Darlene Trew Crist, an award-winning writer, Gail Scowcroft, the associate director of the Office of Marine Programs at the University of Rhode Island and James M. Harding, Jr., a marine scientist and educator at the University of Rhode Island joined forces and talents to write the World Ocean Census - A Global Survey of Marine Life, an insider's description of the comprehensive Census of Marine Life and what it reveals about a seriously threatened ecosystem.