While I understand Badge's deep concern for what is portrayed in this film regarding what we now consider serious mistreatment of the creatures from our oceans, this film must be viewed from its historical context. I am old enough to have seen it when it was first released, and to have been awe inspired by it. Cousteau and his crew were pioneers, entering a world few knew at that time... and even fewer (including the Captain) knew how to treat. It just can't be viewed and judged properly with the benefit of today's understanding of our ocean.
More than a decade later I was a practicing marine biologist and killed sharks myself, some for research, some for their flesh and skins (to tan) and some just for the heck of it. Despite claiming to be an environmentalist, we saw little wrong with most of that since sharks had been given a black eye by the media (even prior to "Jaws") and at the time they were so plentiful in my local waters. No one foretold at that time how we would devastate them and impact ecosystems from shallow sandy bays to tropical coral reefs.
It was early Cousteau films like this that led many in my generation to pursue SCUBA diving as a career, and often work for the cause of ocean conservation. I was fortunate enough to work for JYC and his son Jean-Michel during the 1985 filming of one of his TBS episodes in the "Rediscovery of the World" series. By that time Cousteau and many of us who loved his work, had developed real concern for the oceans that grew out of what was revealed to him and what he revealed to us over the decades.
More than a decade later I was a practicing marine biologist and killed sharks myself, some for research, some for their flesh and skins (to tan) and some just for the heck of it. Despite claiming to be an environmentalist, we saw little wrong with most of that since sharks had been given a black eye by the media (even prior to "Jaws") and at the time they were so plentiful in my local waters. No one foretold at that time how we would devastate them and impact ecosystems from shallow sandy bays to tropical coral reefs.
It was early Cousteau films like this that led many in my generation to pursue SCUBA diving as a career, and often work for the cause of ocean conservation. I was fortunate enough to work for JYC and his son Jean-Michel during the 1985 filming of one of his TBS episodes in the "Rediscovery of the World" series. By that time Cousteau and many of us who loved his work, had developed real concern for the oceans that grew out of what was revealed to him and what he revealed to us over the decades.