16B 



tation, plankton, shellfish, edible and non-edible fish, coral, and, in fact, all 

 marine life. 



There are reasons other than pollution for the diminution of life in the seas : 

 overfishing is one, and the destruction of breeding and living areas by alteration 

 of underwater environments is another. But the primary reason is pollution, 

 for every pollutant on land and in the air eventually finds its way to the sea. 

 Cleansing rains run through streams and rivers and pipelines directly or indirect- 

 ly to the ocean. 



Because 96 percent of the water on earth is in the ocean, we have deluded our- 

 selves into thinking of the seas as enormous and indestructible. We have not 

 considered that earth is a closed system. Once destroyed, the oceans can never 

 be replaced. We are obliged now to face the fact that by using it as a universal 

 sewer, we are severely over-taxing the ocean's powers of self-purification. 



The sea is the source of all life. If the sea did not exist, man would not exist. 

 The sea is fragile and in danger. We must love and protect it if we hope to 

 continue to exist ourselves. 



Men of all nations must join together in an effort to save our seas. I am sure 

 that by such measures as are called for in HR-805, we will succeed. 



Sincerely yours, 



Jacques-Yves Cousteau. 



Exhibit B 

 Biography of Jacques- Yves Cousteau 



For centuries man has dreamed of unlocking the secrets of the mysterious 

 world beneath the sea. Through his inventions, books, films and television spe- 

 cials, undersea explorer Jacques- Yves Cousteau has taken man into this inner 

 space — both vicariously and personally. 



Since the day Cousteau donned a pair of goggles more than thirty years ago 

 and looked into the sea, his goal has been to go deeper, stay longer and learn 

 more. His dissatisfaction with existing breathing devices led him to design the 

 compressed-air Aqualung in 1943 in collaboration with the French engineer Emile 

 Gagnan. Throughout World War II he dived and made underwater films with 

 companions Frederic Dumas and Philippe Tailliez as a cover for his under- 

 ground intelligence work. 



Cousteau. was bom in 1910 in St. Andre de Cubzac, France. He is a graduate 

 of the French Naval Academy of Brest and served in the French Navy as a 

 gunnery officer. For his wartime services he was made a Knight of the Legion 

 of Honor and awarded the Croix de Guerre. Subsequently he was made Officer 

 of the Legion of Honor in recognition of his contribution to Science. After the 

 liberation, Cousteau with Dumas and Tailliez founded the Group for Undersea 

 Ileseai\;h in the French Navy. The Group participated in many underwater 

 activities including the clearing of German mines from Mediterranean harbors, 

 testing the effects of compressed air diving and explosions underwater on the 

 human body, exploring the romantic Fountain of Vaucluse, excavating a Roman 

 ship sunk off Tunisia in 80 B.C. and aiding with the first dive of a bathyscaphe 

 in 1948. 



Fearing that he would be rotated away from the sea to a desk job, Cousteau 

 took leave from the Navy in 1950 to create the non-profit Compagnes Oceano- 

 graphiques Fran^aises, through which the American-built Calypso, a former 

 minesweeper, is now operated as an oceanographic research vessel. 



Calypso made her maiden voyage as a research vessel in 1951 to the Red Sea 

 where, for the first time, an underwater television system developed by Cousteau 

 and French engineer Andre Laban. was put in use. In 1953, Cousteau in collabora- 

 tion with Frederic Dumas published his first book. The Silent World, a classic 

 ax?count of exploration and adventure and an immediate best-seller. In the years 

 between the book's publication and release of tiie film of the same name in 1956, 

 Calypso Expeditions was involved in an archeological dig near Grand Congloue, 

 off Marseilles, of a Greek wine ship dating from 205 B.C. To trace the route of 

 the ship, Cal/ypso visited the island of Delos where evidence of the ship's owner 

 was found in the ruins of his villa. In 1954, Calypso and divers explored for oil 

 deposits in the Persian Gulf before making two long cruises to the Seychelles 

 Islands, the Indian Ocean and Red Sea to film The Silent World, winner of the 



