163 



"Palme d'Or" at Cannes in 1956, and the first of three Cousteau films to be 

 awarded the Motion Picture Academy Award "Oscar". 



In 1957, Cousteau resigned from the N'avy and was elected Director of the 

 Musee Oceanographique of Monaco. His engineering organization in Marseilles, 

 now known as CBMA (for Centre d'Etudes Marines Avances), began, under 

 the direction of engineer Jean MoUard, the design and construction of the Dicing 

 Saucer (DS-2) Denise, 'a revolutionary two-man research and observation sub- 

 marine of circular design, propelled by water jets capable of going to 1,000 feet of 

 depth. 



On her voyage to New York to participate in the International Geophysical 

 Year in 1959, Calypso towed a deep-sea camera sled or "Troika", built by CEMA, 

 tlirough the depths of the Atlantic's Rift Valley, making the first continuous 

 photographic record of that bottom. The Diving Saucer was successfully tested 

 during that same year and became a major tool for exploration of the continental 

 shelf. 



In 1962, Cousteau and his group establishhed the world's first underwater 

 station, Conshelf I, in which two divers lived continuously for one v\'eek in 

 thirty-five feet of water. The following year a more amibitious underwater com- 

 munity was established in the Red Sea, and the feature film, World Without Sun, 

 was made to record the experience. In Coneshelf II five men lived in Starfish 

 House, submerged in thirty-five feet of water for a month, while further down at 

 85 feet, two men lived for one week in Deep Cabin. A hangar for the Diving 

 Saucer and a tool shed completed the underwater station. 



During the period from Calypso's acquisition through the Conshelf III experi- 

 ment, Calypso expeditions and many Cousteau group projects were funded by 

 the French Ministry of Education and by the National Geographic Society. Ac- 

 counts of his experiences were made periodically by Cousteau and appeared in 

 the National Geographic Magazine. In 1963, in collaboration with James Dugan, 

 The Living Sea, which enlarged and expanded on these accounts, was published. 



In the following year the construction of Deepstar-JfOOO for the Westinghouse 

 Corporation was completed and the three-man submarine was delivered from 

 CEMA's manufacturing facility in Marseilles, Erance. That year also saw another 

 unique Cousteau project — the world's first anchored open-sea oceanographic 

 buoy, Mysterious Island — put into operation in the Mediterranean. Currently, 

 CEMA is constructing an advance version of the Diving Saucer (the S.P. 3000) 

 capable of operating at 10,000 feet of depth and the "Argyronete", a ten-man 

 submarine designed to operate at 2,000 feet and from which four oceanauts will 

 emei'ge to carry on assigned tasks on the ocean floor. 



Conshelf III in 1965 was a major advance in underwater habitats which 

 housed six oceanauts at a depth of 328 feet for three weeks. Their experiences 

 were filmed as a television special entitled The World of Jacques-Yves Cousteau 

 for the National Geographic-CBS-TV. The popularity of this program triggered 

 a contract for twelve television specials with Metromedia Producers Corp. and 

 ABC called The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. The series of specials has 

 since received numerous awards throughout the United States and Europe. 



In 1967, carrying special new equipment including two one-man minisubs, (the 

 "S.P. 500"), Calypso left Monaco for an extended voyage of underwater explora- 

 tion and filming. The long cruise took the ship and its crew to the Red Sea, In- 

 dian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, to the South Atlantic, the Carib- 

 bean, Pacific, Peru, Alaska, the Galapagos Islands, the British Honduras and the 

 Bahamas before she returned to France in September of 1970. The enthusiastic 

 response from critics and viewers to the first twelve programs resulted in a con- 

 tract for a new television series. 



On his return with the Calypso, Cousteau voiced his growing concern over 

 pollution of the seas. "The sea is the universal sewer", he said. "All pollutants 

 on land eventually reach the sea". In 1960, Cousteau had lead a successful cam- 

 paign to prevent the French Atomic Energy Commission's dumping of radio- 

 active wastes into the Mediterranean. At that time he remarked, "We risk 

 poisoning the sea forever just when we are learning her science, art and philos- 

 ODhy and how to live in her embrace." 



Cousteau is also Chairman of the Board of U.S. Divers Co., a diving equip- 

 jueut manufacturing firm ; Les Requins Associes, a French film production com- 

 pany ; Living Sea Corporation, a marine structural and design firm in charge 

 of the design of the Museum of the Sea Aboard the Queen Mary ; and Thalassa, 



