Fabien Cousteau

 Spanish • French • Inglés 

Episode 15: L’aquanaute (The Aquanaut)

Fabien Cousteau, grandson of legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, was just a boy when he fell in love with a creature that most other people fear: sharks. But no one could have predicted that years later, Fabien would do the unthinkable…and decide to live among them.

Transcript

Ngofeen: Fabien Cousteau was barely six years old, the first time he crossed paths with a live shark… He was with his family and they were diving, ils plongeaient, off the coast of California. And yes, he is related to the legendary French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau. Fabien is Jacques Cousteau’s grandson.

Fabien: On plongeait dans des eaux peu profondes. Mon père me montrait les différents poissons. Soudain, je l’ai vu. C’était un petit requin léopard, couleur argent, avec des taches noires. Pour moi, il était tellement beau !

(English: We were diving in shallow water. My father was showing me the different fish. Suddenly, I saw it. It was a small leopard shark, silver in color, with black spots. To me, it was so beautiful!)

Ngofeen: For Fabien, this was the start of a lifelong fascination with sharks, les requins.

Fabien: Quand je plongeais avec des requins, je voyais des créatures très belles, et très calmes. Ces requins étaient très différents des images sensationnalistes dans les films, ou des histoires d’attaques dans les journaux. Je voulais changer cette image négative.

(English: When I was diving with sharks, I saw very beautiful, very calm creatures. These sharks were very different from the sensationalized images in movies, or the stories of attacks in the newspapers. I wanted to change this negative image.)

Ngofeen: Fabien wanted the public to see sharks the way he saw them. He wanted people to understand that they aren’t aggressive killing machines, drawn to human blood. But before he could share his love of sharks with the wider world, he knew he needed to understand them better himself. And what better way to understand a creature…than to become it?

Fabien: Je voulais nager avec les requins. Je voulais observer leur comportement naturel, pour montrer leur vraie nature. Je ne voulais pas seulement plonger avec eux. Je voulais être l’un d’entre eux. 

(English: I wanted to swim with sharks. I wanted to observe their natural behavior, to show their true nature. I didn't just want to dive with them. I wanted to be one of them.)

Ngofeen: Fabien Cousteau built a career around his fascination with marine life and sharks. He grew up sailing and working alongside the seasoned crew of his grandfather’s ship, the Calypso.

Fabien: Les gens qui travaillaient sur la Calypso étaient des explorateurs exceptionnels. Il y avait mon grand-père, bien sûr, mais aussi ma grand-mère, Simone. Ma grand-mère était un guide pour nous tous. (English: The people who worked on the Calypso were exceptional explorers. There was my grandfather, of course, but also my grandmother, Simone. My grandmother was a guide for all of us.)

Ngofeen: Fabien’s grandparents were among the world’s first aquanauts, people who remain underwater using special breathing equipment, sometimes for days at a time, usually for research purposes. Fabien’s grandparents dedicated their lives to exploring and documenting marine life all around the world.

Fabien: Tout ce que je sais de l’océan, je l’ai appris sur la Calypso et notre deuxième bateau, l’Alcyone, grâce à mes grands-parents. Ils m’ont appris à aimer la mer, mais aussi à la respecter, et à la protéger. Mon grand-père disait : « Les gens protègent ce qu’ils aiment, ils aiment ce qu’ils comprennent, et ils comprennent ce qu’on leur apprend. » (English: Everything I know about the ocean, I learned on the Calypso and our second boat, the Alcyone, thanks to my grandparents. They taught me to love the sea, but also to respect it, and to protect it. My grandfather used to say: “People protect what they love, they love what they understand, and they understand what they are taught.”)

人们保护他们所爱的事物，Rén-men bǎo-hù tā-men suǒ ài de shì-wù,

热爱他们所理解的事物，rè'-ài tā-men suǒ lǐ-jiě de shì-wù,

并且理解他们所学到的事物。bìng-qiě lǐ-jiě tā-men suǒ xué dào de shì-wù.

Ngofeen: “People protect what they love, they love what they understand, and they understand what they are taught.” It’s a mantra that guided Fabien as he became an ocean explorer and filmmaker. When Jacques Cousteau died in 1997, Fabien was proud to carry on the family legacy.

Fabien: Très jeune, j’ai appris à respecter le monde marin. C’est très important. L’océan est la source de la vie sur cette terre. L’équilibre des océans est essentiel pour la planète. Il est essentiel pour nous aussi. Et les requins jouent un rôle important dans cet équilibre. Mais le requin est un animal que les gens ne comprennent pas. ( English: At a very young age, I learned to respect the marine world. It is very important. The ocean is the source of life on this earth. The balance of the oceans is essential for the planet. It is essential for us too. And sharks play an important role in this balance. But the shark is an animal that people do not understand.)

Ngofeen: In 2003, when Fabien was 36, he was featured in a documentary called “Attacks of the Mystery Shark.” What he saw in the film bothered him. He saw that filmmakers often captured footage of sharks by placing a diver, un plongeur, in a protective cage in the middle of shark-infested waters. To him, this was a problem.

Fabien: Les requins voient la cage et le plongeur. Pour eux, le plongeur est un corps étranger, au milieu de leur territoire. Ce corps étranger, c’est une menace. Les réactions des requins sont agressives, et parfois, ils essaient d’attaquer la cage. Mais ce n’est pas leur nature. (English: Sharks see the cage and the diver. For them, the diver is a foreign body, in the middle of their territory. This foreign body is a threat. The sharks' reactions are aggressive, and sometimes they try to attack the cage. But that is not their nature.)

Ngofeen: Fabien was obsessed with finding a way to observe and film sharks without disrupting their natural behavior. He kept turning the question over and over in his head. One day, he remembered a comic book he used to read as a boy. It was part of a popular series called « Les Aventures de Tintin, » The Adventures of Tintin.

Fabien: Sur la couverture, Tintin et son chien Milou sont au fond de la mer. Mais ils ne nagent pas : ils sont assis dans un sous-marin qui a la forme d’un requin. Cette image a captivé mon imagination. (English: On the cover, Tintin and his dog Snowy are at the bottom of the sea. But they are not swimming: they are sitting in a submarine that is shaped like a shark. This image captured my imagination.)

Ngofeen: So Fabien dug up the old comic book and devoured it. By the time he reached the last page, he had made up his mind: he would build a shark-shaped submarine that looked and felt like the real deal. Fabien began telling people around him about his idea.

Fabien: Tout le monde me disait : « C’est impossible. » Mais je ne pouvais pas abandonner cette idée. Pour moi, c’était la meilleure façon d’observer les requins. C’était aussi la meilleure façon de les comprendre, et de les protéger. (English: Everyone told me, “It’s impossible.” But I couldn’t give up on this idea. For me, it was the best way to observe sharks. It was also the best way to understand them, and to protect them.)

Ngofeen: Fabien wanted to create a submarine that allowed him to move underwater, among sharks. That meant no noise, and no bubbles… And that meant no engine and no propeller. Both engineers and fellow ocean explorers thought it couldn’t be done. So Fabien called Eddie Paul, a stunt man turned engineer who brought robotic figures to life in Hollywood films.

Fabien: À Hollywood, Eddie Paul était un pro. C’est lui qui a créé les véhicules pour des films comme Grease, Taxi, et Gone in 60 seconds. Mon père avait aussi travaillé avec lui. Une seule personne pouvait construire mon sous-marin requin : lui. (English: In Hollywood, Eddie Paul was a pro. He created the vehicles for movies like Grease, Taxi, and Gone in 60 Seconds. My dad had worked with him, too. Only one person could build my shark submarine: him.)

Ngofeen: Fabien and Eddie worked on a prototype for nearly two years, testing out many different materials and propulsion systems. Early tests in pool water were a disaster. The sub struggled to float and was hard to maneuver. But finally, they came up with a working prototype. They dubbed their mechanical shark “Troy,” Troie.

Fabien: Le prototype final était très impressionnant. De l’extérieur, il ressemblait à un grand requin blanc. Mais à l’intérieur, il y avait de la place pour un homme adulte en costume de plongée. Il y avait aussi deux écrans qui se connectaient à deux caméras cachées sur le requin. (English: The final prototype was very impressive. From the outside, it looked like a great white shark. But inside, there was room for a grown man in a diving suit. There were also two screens that connected to two hidden cameras on the shark.)

Ngofeen: Troy was a “wet sub,” meaning that it wasn’t waterproof. The outside was made of a flexible, stretchy material mimicking a shark’s skin. The body of the shark had room for one person in scuba gear, Fabien, who would pilot the sub with a control stick. It was an engineering feat.

Fabien: Beaucoup de personnes m’avaient dit : « C’est impossible. » Mais quand ces gens ont vu le sous-marin, ils ont dit : « C’est incroyable ! » J’ai hérité d’une chose de ma famille : mon envie d’aller plus loin, et de ne pas faire comme les autres. Avec les choses que je fais, je suis sûrement un peu fou ! (English: Many people told me: "It's impossible." But when these people saw the submarine, they said: "It's incredible!" I inherited one thing from my family: my desire to go further, and not to do like the others. With the things I do, I'm probably a little crazy!)

Ngofeen: In late 2004, Fabien and a small team including his sister Céline, shark scientist Marc Marks and ship captain Peter Brown set off to deploy the sub in a real shark habitat. A small camera crew accompanied them to document the whole experience.

Fabien: Notre bateau s’appelait le « Captain Jack ». C’était un vieux bateau de pêche. On l’avait réparé nous-mêmes. Pendant huit semaines, on allait vivre, manger, travailler, et dormir sur ce vieux bateau. (English: Our boat was called the “Captain Jack.” It was an old fishing boat. We had repaired it ourselves. For eight weeks, we would live, eat, work, and sleep on this old boat.)

Ngofeen: The team’s destination was Guadalupe Island. It’s a sparsely populated island off of Mexico’s Pacific coast with large colonies of sea lions and seals, des phoques, and their main predators: sharks.

Fabien: Isla Guadalupe est un lieu idéal pour observer et filmer le requin blanc. L’endroit est isolé, l’eau est claire, et il y a beaucoup de phoques et de requins. Je m’intéressais à seulement une chose : pouvoir nager au milieu des requins. (English: Isla Guadalupe is a great place to watch and film the great white shark. The place is isolated, the water is clear, and there are lots of seals and sharks. I was only interested in one thing: being able to swim among the sharks.)

Ngofeen: After a few rocky test dives and some last-minute repairs on Troy, the day Fabien had been dreaming of for two and a half years finally came. The filmmakers captured Fabien as he reviewed the safety protocols with his crew, l’équipage, one last time.

Fabien: Chaque fois que l’on plonge, il y a un risque. J’étais totalement conscient du danger. Mais pour moi, le rêve était plus important. Je devais faire attention aux requins. Pour ma sécurité, je devais rester tout le temps en contact radio avec l’équipage. (English: Every time you dive, there is a risk. I was totally aware of the danger. But for me, the dream was more important. I had to watch out for sharks. For my safety, I had to stay in radio contact with the crew at all times.)

Ngofeen: Auto-eject and swim to safety. That was the plan in case Troy broke down or Fabien lost contact with his crew. After a final gear check, Fabien opened Troy’s “head” — which was actually the submarine hatch — and slid in, feet first, belly down. Then the crew slowly lowered the sub into the water, and Fabien was off.

Fabien: Quand j’ai piloté Troy pour la première fois, c’était incroyable. Troy avançait à la vitesse moyenne d’un requin blanc. Il avançait sous l’eau, sans faire de bruit. Pour la première fois, je plongeais au milieu des requins, et je nageais avec eux. (English: When I first piloted Troy, it was incredible. Troy moved at the average speed of a great white shark. He moved underwater, without making a sound. For the first time, I was diving among sharks, and swimming with them.)

Ngofeen: After that, Fabien went on dives every day. Alone, Fabien relied on a radio system to keep in touch with the crew on deck. From the camera monitors inside Troy, he could see as if through Troy’s “eyes.”

Fabien: Quand un requin blanc s’est approché de Troy pour la première fois, il l’a regardé dans les yeux. Puis il a continué à nager tranquillement. C’était une sensation incroyable.( When a great white shark first approached Troy, he looked it in the eye. Then he continued to swim calmly. It was an incredible feeling.)

Ngofeen: Fabien’s crazy gamble was working! Some days, other divers would join with underwater cameras. Over several weeks, he and his team gathered over 100 hours of rare footage of great whites sharks. And he observed the sharks’ behavior up close. Once in a while, when backup divers were present, Fabien would even open the hatch and swim out.

Fabien: Même si je sortais du sous-marin, quand les requins me voyaient, ils ne m’attaquaient pas. Ils passaient à côté de moi, timidement, puis ils s’éloignaient. (English: Even if I got out of the submarine, when the sharks saw me, they didn't attack me. They passed by me, timidly, then they moved away.)

Ngofeen: As the expedition neared its end, Fabien decided to get the rarest of footage. He would do a high-risk dive…at night.

Fabien: Pendant la nuit, la visibilité sous l’eau était très mauvaise. Je savais que les risques étaient plus grands. Mais je voulais le faire. Je voulais observer les requins la nuit, car personne ne voit jamais ça. (English: At night, the visibility underwater was very poor. I knew the risks were greater. But I wanted to do it. I wanted to observe sharks at night, because no one ever sees that.)

Ngofeen: Despite the risk of diving alone at night, Fabien felt confident. Years of training with his grandparents and the crew of the Calypso had prepared him well. As he had many times before, Fabien slipped into Troy and lowered down into the water.

Fabien: Mes grands-parents et l’équipage de la Calypso m’ont appris à rester calme. Après des années de plongée, on a plus confiance dans l’eau. On développe un instinct, comme un sixième sens. On peut sentir les premiers signes d’agitation chez les animaux marins, et alors, on sait qu’il faut s’en aller. (English: My grandparents and the crew of the Calypso taught me to stay calm. After years of diving, you have more confidence in the water. You develop an instinct, like a sixth sense. You can sense the first signs of agitation in marine animals, and then you know you have to leave.)

Ngofeen: Fabien and Troy descended into the dark, silent depths of the ocean. Together, they swam. Fabien could see through Troy's infrared cameras, les caméras infrarouges. Occasionally, a shark’s looming silhouette would glide past.

Fabien: Au début, tout se passait bien. La visibilité était mauvaise, mais grâce aux caméras infrarouges du sous-marin, je pouvais voir l’activité des requins. Puis, soudain, tout a changé. (English: At first, everything went well. Visibility was poor, but thanks to the submarine's infrared cameras, I could see shark activity. Then, suddenly, everything changed.)

Ngofeen: With a sudden jolt, the system propelling Troy sputtered to a halt. In that moment, Fabien realized he hadn’t heard his crew over the radio in several minutes. He pressed the emitter button: “Troy to surface, do you copy?”

Fabien: Rien. Pas de réponse. J’étais seul. Mon sous-marin n’avançait plus. À la surface, mon équipage ne me voyait pas. Ils ne m’entendaient pas. Ils ne pouvaient pas me trouver. Je continuais à répéter : « Ici Fabien, vous m’entendez ? » (English: Nothing. No answer. I was alone. My submarine was no longer moving. On the surface, my crew couldn’t see me. They couldn’t hear me. They couldn’t find me. I kept repeating: “This is Fabien, can you hear me?”)

Ngofeen: After several more attempts to reach his crew, reality sank in. Fabien was alone in dark waters, next to a shark hunting ground, completely cut off from his team. And Troy had stopped working.

Fabien: J’ai réalisé que j’étais dans une situation critique pour un plongeur. À ce moment-là, j’ai pensé à mes grands-parents et à l’équipage de la Calypso. J’imaginais leur réaction : « Fabien, tu n’as absolument rien appris ! » (English: I realized that I was in a critical situation for a diver. At that moment, I thought of my grandparents and the crew of the Calypso. I imagined their reaction: “Fabien, you have learned absolutely nothing!”)

Ngofeen: Fabien had to think fast. He had two options. First, he could let the sub rise up to the surface and hope the crew would spot him. But he had no way of knowing how far the boat was and he knew the sub would be hard to find in the dark. Plus, sharks are known to hunt near the surface.

Fabien: Je pouvais aller à la surface en sous-marin, puis sortir du sous-marin, et agiter ma lampe pour alerter mon équipage. Mais les requins chassent surtout à la surface. Ils attaquent rarement les hommes, mais un requin pouvait penser que j'étais un phoque. C’était dangereux. (English: I could go to the surface in a submarine, then get out of the submarine, and wave my light to alert my crew. But sharks hunt mostly on the surface. They rarely attack men, but a shark might think I was a seal. It was dangerous.)

Ngofeen: Fabien decided against it. He didn’t want to be mistaken for a seal. His only other option was to drop Troy’s anchor, eject himself from the sub and swim underwater to the shore, the way he’d practiced with his crew. He knew he could orient himself back to the beach by following the rising seafloor.

Fabien: J’ai décidé de jeter l’ancre du sous-marin, de sortir, puis de nager sous l’eau jusqu’à la plage. (English: I decided to drop the submarine anchor, get out, and then swim underwater to the beach.)

Ngofeen: Fabien grabbed his flashlight in one hand and a camera in the other. After a deep breath, Fabien opened the hatch and swam out, following the seafloor towards the beach.

Fabien: Je nageais le plus vite et le plus silencieusement possible. Je ne voulais pas attirer l’attention d’un animal. Mais soudain, j’ai vu un énorme phoque, juste devant moi ! (English: I was swimming as fast and as silently as possible. I didn't want to attract the attention of any animal. But suddenly I saw a huge seal, right in front of me!)

Ngofeen: The elephant seal was inches away from Fabien’s face. It was a male and it was massive. Four thousand pounds.

Fabien: J’ai pensé : « S’il m’attaque, je vais devoir me défendre. » J’avais peur, mais j’étais triste aussi. Je ne voulais pas faire de mal à ce phoque. Heureusement, je crois que le phoque a eu peur de moi aussi. Il m’a regardé dans les yeux un instant, puis il est parti. (English: I thought, “If he attacks me, I’m going to have to defend myself.” I was scared, but I was sad too. I didn’t want to hurt that seal. Luckily, I think the seal was scared of me too. He looked me in the eye for a moment, then he left.)

Ngofeen: After that close encounter, Fabien swam faster than he ever had before. The beach was over 160 yards away. Fabien followed the ocean floor as it went gradually up, and the water got shallower. When he finally splashed onto the shore, he felt a huge sense of relief. But he wasn’t safe yet!

Fabien: Je pensais que j’étais en sécurité sur la plage. Mais pas du tout ! La plage était couverte de phoques. Ils n’étaient pas contents de me voir. Ils ont commencé à me suivre, et à me poursuivre ! (English: I thought I was safe on the beach. But not at all! The beach was covered in seals. They were not happy to see me. They started following me, and chasing me!)

Ngofeen: Fabien tried to escape the seals on the beach and he waved his flashlight in the air to catch his crew’s attention. When his team finally arrived, they found Fabien hopping from one side of the beach to the other, frantically dodging seals.

Fabien: Je n’étais pas très fier ! Mais j’étais heureux d’être encore vivant. J’ai eu beaucoup de chance. (I wasn't very proud! But I was happy to still be alive. I was very lucky.)

Ngofeen: Surviving this close call didn’t deter Fabien from swimming with sharks again. His experience with Troy left him convinced that great whites are a misunderstood species. Far from being aggressive killing machines, the sharks Fabien and his team observed rarely attacked each other, or humans.

Fabien: Grâce à Troy, on a observé la communication entre les requins. Un requin n’attaque presque jamais un autre requin pour le tuer. Les requins attaquent surtout quand ils chassent. Et ils n’aiment pas chasser les humains ! (English: Thanks to Troy, we observed the communication between sharks. A shark almost never attacks another shark to kill it. Sharks attack mostly when they are hunting. And they don't like to hunt humans!)

Ngofeen: Fabien and his team made a film about their Troy adventure, which aired on CBS in 2006. Beyond the drama and cool factor of the shark-shaped sub, Fabien hopes it drives home the main lesson he learned: sharks are ferocious hunters, but humans are not their target. We threaten them far more than they threaten us.

Fabien: Chaque année, les attaques de requins tuent 12 personnes dans le monde entier. Mais nous, les humains, nous tuons plus de 100 millions de requins par an ! Pour moi, c’est une tragédie. Une chose est claire : la protection des requins est essentielle pour la protection des océans. Et la protection des océans est essentielle pour la survie des êtres humains.(English: Every year, shark attacks kill 12 people worldwide. But we humans kill over 100 million sharks a year! To me, this is a tragedy. One thing is clear: protecting sharks is essential to protecting the oceans. And protecting the oceans is essential to human survival.)

Ngofeen: Today, Fabien runs the Ocean Learning Center, which is dedicated to teaching young people how to understand and protect ocean ecosystems. Whenever he tells the story of Troy, he hopes that it will spark the curiosity and sense of adventure of the next generation of young minds.

Fabien: J’ai eu de la chance. J’ai appris avec la meilleure école du monde : l’équipage de la Calypso. J’ai vu, vécu, et appris des choses qu’on n’apprend pas à l’école. Et puis, j’ai continué à explorer le monde sous-marin. J’ai un énorme respect pour toute la vie autour de nous. Et quand je vois un jeune qui a la curiosité d’explorer le monde, ça me donne de l’espoir. (English: I was lucky. I learned with the best school in the world: the crew of the Calypso. I saw, experienced, and learned things that you don’t learn at school. And then, I continued to explore the underwater world. I have enormous respect for all the life around us. And when I see a young person who has the curiosity to explore the world, it gives me hope.)

Ngofeen: Fabien Cousteau is an aquanaut and ocean conservationist living in Connecticut. 

You can visit Fabien Cousteau's website at fabiencousteauolc.org where you can learn more about how to protect and preserve our oceans. You can also find Fabien and the Ocean Learning Center on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @fcousteauolc.