Fabien Cousteau: Becoming A Shark - Part I
Posted By Nicolas Danan on 11 March 2004
Fabien Cousteau is laughing; we have talked for the past 15 minutes about his new documentary and I realized that the tape recorder’s red light, the sign of liveliness for such a piece of… technology, is not on!
“Oh well we will start anew, don’t worry.” He said in a kind voice.
Fabien is the grandson of world renowned underwater cinematographer and Scuba co inventor Jacques Yves Cousteau, and son of well known Sea Explorer and environmentalist Jean-Michel Cousteau. I thought of titling this interview “Cousteau: The Next Generation” but decided it was too Hollywood. For a man who has been focusing on destroying (so to speak) the negative image of sharks that the motion picture industry created and has been cultivating in many movies for decades. In his new documentary Fabien is using the same technology that Hollywood uses to prove to the general public that “Jaws” is not to be feared but instead to be protected and admired as a fantastic Apex predator. It is not the first time that Fabien is focusing on sharks. In 2002 he hosted a show on National Geographic TV “In Search Of the Mystery Shark” where he investigated the first recorded shark attack in U.S. History in 1916. I pushed the record button again and this time made sure the red light was there, this time we were on.
Since it is your second or even third documentary on sharks, I would like to ask what is the inspiration that brought you to become such a fierce defender of this specific species?
Being born in this family, I was very privileged without really knowing it, to be able to discover extraordinary places on this planet while accompanied by great teachers of immeasurable worth. I was always told from a very young age, when I first started diving at 4 years old that sharks are just another animal worth revering and respecting. When I was 7 years old or so we were on a Princess Cruise where my father was lecturing and I had, against my parents’ wishes, snuck into the movie “Jaws”. I had come out of there, not scared, not having nightmares, but very puzzled and full of confusion. Here was a movie portraying a great white shark eating boats , eating people doing all sorts of things that I had grown up to that point knowing otherwise. Needless to say when I asked questions to my parents I got in trouble for having seen the movie! But then was I subsequently told that it was fantasy.
As time goes on and fast forwarding to now the “Year of the Shark” reinitiated the anger and the concern that I have against such misconceptions. The press covering the event was in my opinion fluffed up and overall inaccurate. My biggest concerns obviously are for the well being of the shark in this case. The image that we all have of “Jaws” coming back to haunt us again to this day is in my view absolutely unacceptable. Although I am all for fantasy, it has gotten to a point now where it is extremely detrimental to a specific species on this planet. Over 200 million sharks are being slaughtered every year.
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