Ocean dead zones, greenhouse gases causing a particularly nasty hurricane season, and depletion of the majority of the world’s pelagic fish are only the tip of the iceberg to Jean-Michel Cousteau, president of the local Ocean Futures Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving our environment.

While he would probably prefer to be on field expeditions with his crew, Cousteau’s mission of educating the public about the plight of our world’s oceans often lands him at the organization’s Chapala Street headquarters, giving interviews and getting the word out.

“The bad news is that we continue to use the ocean as a garbage can, the universal sewer,” he said. “If we wanted to do hara-kiri we couldn’t do a better job.”

While we in the coastal community are aware that activities near or in the ocean affect the quality of underwater ecosystems, we might not know that we don’t have be near the ocean to pollute it.

“It starts way inland,” said Cousteau. “You can be in Missouri, and it’s going to end up ultimately in the Gulf of Mexico, and it will contribute to one of the dead zones in the ocean.”

Dead zones are oxygen-deprived areas of the ocean caused by nitrogen runoff from fertilizers, sewers and other chemical emissions. Once in the water, these chemical flows set off algae blooms which, when they die, are decomposed by bacteria that consume the oxygen in the water. Sea life either suffocates or flees in search of a better place to live.

Currently, there are about 150 of these barren regions in the world. The biggest one is in the Gulf of Mexico where the Mississippi River runs into it, taking about two million tons of nitrogen into the gulf each year.

“The dead zone (in the Gulf of Mexico) is as big as the state of Pennsylvania,” said Cousteau. “The unfortunate thing is that the infrastructures we humans have built are designed to get rid of things in the ocean.”

As if dumping toxins into the ocean were not enough, according to Cousteau, overfishing and human activities that reshape the coastline endanger the habitats nourishing and protecting fish we rely on for food.

“We are doing toward the ocean exactly what we’ve done on land. We’re trying to catch everything we can catch, and because of the sophistication of our technology today, we even know where certain species are going to meet to mate and reproduce,” he said, explaining that all big fishing boats have to do is swoop in on these congregations.

“That is exactly the time when you don’t want to touch them, because that’s the next crop. But we don’t wait.”

Still, he doesn’t blame fishermen for the alarming decrease in the population of the world’s pelagic (surface swimming) fish. Rather, he feels regulations and the present economic system are to blame for putting fishermen in the position they find themselves in.

Another concern of Cousteau’s is the plight of what has been called the world’s largest living organism - the coral reefs, the vast majority of which are located on coasts of third world countries.

“These people depend on the quality of the reefs,” he said, which are subject to the effects of global warming, as well as dangerous fishing practices, like the use of dynamite and cyanide. Aside from providing habitats, reefs provide protection by absorbing impact from the ocean.

“Take the Bahamas, whose maximum altitude for 95-98 per cent of the island is 10 feet above sea level,” said Cousteau. “If you don’t have those coral reefs out there that would break down the waves from a storm, a hurricane, or a tsunami...you would be washed away.”

The dilemma for these developing countries, he said, is that their reliance on tourism dollars causes them to overfish and exploit the very resource that make them a destination in the first place. As the reefs disappear, so does the tourism.

Enter Ocean Futures Society

Continuing the tradition started by his late father, the renowned underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel continues to advocate for the world’s oceans.

“(My father) pushed me overboard when I was seven,” he said. “And in those days, you didn’t argue with your parents.” Since then, he, his younger brother Philippe (who died in a plane crash in 1979), his mother Simone and of course his father, spent their time exploring the world’s oceans and waterways.
“Dad was the kind of person who would say, ‘If I knew what was there, I would not go.’ So it was curiosity that led him all the time.”

The person he credits for making things possible, however, is his mother. “Without her, I don’t think he would have done what he has done,” he said. “She called the shots.”

When his father died in 1997, Cousteau realized that if he didn’t take up the reins, there would be no one to continue his and his father’s work. In 1999, he started Ocean Futures Society, a worldwide organization with the motto “Protect the ocean and you protect yourself.”

Currently, Ocean Futures Society is involved in several different projects, all aimed at raising awareness about the world’s oceans. The organization just recently filmed a series called “Voyage to Kure,” chronicling an expedition to a chain of atolls and underwater mounts extending northwest from Hawaii.

The goal of the series is to highlight the existence of these underwater environments and the unique and rare species that live there, like the monk seal and green sea turtle. The Society’s hope is that the region will become the biggest marine sanctuary in the United States. “It’s a legacy that we can pass on to the next generation and we can be proud that we have preserved a piece of the planet.”

The organization also has an educational outreach program, Ambassadors of the Environment, aimed at youth, with the goal of establishing an understanding of and a relationship to the oceans, along with self-confidence and teamwork skills.

“We can take a kid from downtown L.A. who’s never seen the ocean,” said Cousteau, “and in three days we make a swimmer, snorkeling at night.”

Ocean Futures also provides educational material for children, particularly in countries that rely on coral reefs, about the value of their environment and the effects of pollution.

“They don’t know Cousteau in Kiribati,” he said, “but they know somebody who is maybe an anchorwoman on television or a rugby player in the All Blacks.” The Society inventories the number of children in these countries, and the number of educators there, develops a budget, prints materials and has them presented in a manner consistent with the local culture, by a “local hero.” Ocean Futures then conducts follow up studies to determine if a program works or needs to be modified.

Money woes in Paradise

Because these projects take a considerable amount of money to implement, much of Cousteau’s time is spent raising funds.

“I’m a professional beggar,” he said. “That’s all I do. ‘ Help help help.’” Considering the amount of wealth in the area, Cousteau has found that funds are not easy to come by in the local community.

“Nobody’s a prophet in his own backyard,” he said, admitting that even some of his colleagues think him off-kilter for some of his philosophies.

“I think we’re taken for granted. ‘ Cousteau must be rich,’ I think, is the perception,” he said. He does acknowledge that in this land of plenty, there are many worthy organizations raising money, of which Ocean Futures is only one.

The bright side

While the reluctance of people to contribute to the Society is understandable, Cousteau said, it does not change the fact that the growing population on Earth is adding more and more of a burden to the environment.

Cousteau said he does see a heartening trend at the grassroots level, in industry and in local government.

“I went to a conference which had 136 mayors from the United States [in attendance] who had agreed to abide by the Kyoto regulations,” said Cousteau. The Kyoto Protocol calls for countries to commit to reducing greenhouse gases. The United States, which emits roughly a quarter of the world’s carbon dioxide, signed but did not ratify the protocol, which went into effect last February. Major cities like Seattle and Chicago were represented at the conference Cousteau referred to, as well as smaller cities like Santa Barbara.

“I think it (the movement toward environmental consciousness) is going to come from the industries and the people who are in touch with the people. Our governors and our governments are not in touch with the people - they don’t realize what’s really going on. Mayors? They do. They walk in the streets, they meet people, they get yelled at.”

And industries, he said, are finally coming to realize that if they can’t beat the environmentalists, they should join forces with them.

“At last, they understand that nature is a business. You manage a business, and you either manage it the right way or you’re going to go bankrupt.”

Cousteau is optimistic where the baby boomer generation is concerned, and by extension, the following generations that have also been exposed to environmental awareness.

“People from the age of 40 to 50, who are now getting in power, they understand. And they’ll make a difference.”