MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER: Jean-Michel Cousteau

Explorer, environmentalist, educator, film producer - for more than four decades Jean-Michel Cousteau has used his vast experiences to communicate to people of all nations and generations his love and concern for our water planet.

The son of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel spent much of his life with his family exploring the world's oceans aboard Calypso and Alcyone. Honoring his heritage, Jean-Michel founded Ocean Futures Society in 1999 to carry on this pioneering work.

As Executive Vice President of The Cousteau Society for nearly 20 years, and now as Founder and President of Ocean Futures Society, Jean-Michel travels the globe, meeting with leaders and policymakers at the grassroots level and at the highest echelons of government and business. He is dedicated to educating young people, documenting stories of change and hope, and lending his reputation and support to energize alliances for positive change.

Ocean Futures Society, a non-profit marine conservation and education organization, serves as a voice for the ocean by communicating in all media the critical bond between people and the sea and the importance of wise environmental policy. As Ocean Futures’ leader, Jean-Michel serves as an impassioned diplomat for the environment, reaching out to the public through a variety of media.

Jean-Michel has produced over 75 films, received the Emmy, the Peabody Award, the 7 d'Or, and the Cable Ace Award. In partnership with KQED, a PBS affiliate, Jean-Michel is Executive Producer of “Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Adventures,” a six-part television series airing in 2006 on PBS and internationally.

Recognized as a voice for the ocean who communicates to a new generation, Jean-Michel appeared in a DVD special feature for Pixar/Disney’s Finding Nemo (Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau.) and in Coral Reef Adventure, a MacGillvray Freeman Films IMAX production. In addition, he produced and appeared in a DVD special feature, Case of the Sponge Bob, for Paramount Pictures’ SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie. He also was a presenter and consultant for Sharks 3-D, an IMAX feature film.

His diplomacy on behalf of water and ocean issues includes his success in convincing President George W. Bush to name the Northwest Hawaiian Islands a National Monument after screening his PBS documentary on the subject at The White House in 2006. The NWHI National Monument is the largest protect area in the world—larger than 46 of America’s states.

His collaboration with Green Cross International and the Natural Resources Defense Council on issues of global water security, protection of sensitive marine areas, prevention of oil spills, and prevention of the use of damaging sonar systems have been long-standing achievements. Jean-Michel has served as a spokesman on water issues at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, at the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, and at the Dialogues on Water for Life and Security in Barcelona.

His diplomatic achievements as a voice for the ocean were recognized in December 2003 when he was the first person to receive the Ocean Hero Award from Oceana, recognizing his commitment to communicate the value of the oceans and the threats they face to people of all nations and generations.

For over 30 years, Jean-Michel and his team have conducted a hands-on environmental education program now called Ambassadors of the Environment in over seven countries, reaching thousands of people in a personal and in-depth way to change views on sustainable living and personal responsibility to the environment. This unique program is land and sea-based, with sites at pristine environments, vacation resorts and on cruise ships.

In 2004, he launched the Sustainable Reefs Program, a package of materials including a CD-ROM, cartoon book, and video on how to sustainably manage the coral reef system, to be distributed at no cost to communities bordering coral reef ecosystems around the world. The international organization Reef Check acknowledged Jean-Michel’s efforts to protect the world’s reefs by giving him their Poseidon/Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Through Ocean Futures Society, Jean-Michel continues to produce environmentally oriented programs and television specials, public service announcements, multi-media programs for schools, web-based marine content, books, articles for magazines and newspaper columns, and public lectures, reaching millions of people globally. He is the editor and contributing author of Water Culture, a collection of photographs and interviews calling attention to the global issues of water. In 2004, he authored My Father, the Captain, his depiction of life as the son of Jacques Cousteau.

In January 2003, Jean-Michel was inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame, joining other diving pioneers, and in recognition of his belief that the privilege of diving in the world’s ocean is also a call to action to protect it.

In February 2002, Jean-Michel became the first person to represent the Environment in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, joining luminaries including Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Africa), John Glenn (The Americas), Kazuyoshi Funaki (Asia), Lech Walesa (Europe), Cathy Freeman (Oceania), Jean-Claude Killy (Sport), and Steven Spielberg (Culture). He also has served on the Board of Directors of the Athens Environmental Foundation for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

In 1999, he merged the Jean-Michel Cousteau Institute with the Free Willy Keiko Foundation to continue research and care for Keiko, the captive killer whale of film fame. In the first attempt ever to return a captive orca to the wild, Jean-Michel and his team pioneered both husbandry techniques and scientific research on wild orcas. In 2002, Keiko was released and crossed the Atlantic Ocean. He was then entrusted to the Humane Society for continued monitoring and care.

In 1998, Jean-Michel was honored with the Environmental Hero Award, presented to him by Vice President Gore at the White House National Oceans Conference. In April of1998, highlighting the International Year of the Ocean, Jean-Michel participated in a live downlink from the Space Shuttle Columbia to CNN New York, discussing NASA's contribution to ocean awareness with astronaut marine biologist, Rick Linnehan. Also in 1998, he was a spokesperson for the United States Pavilion at Expo '98 in Lisbon, Portugal.

In 1997 on Earth Day, Jean-Michel led the first undersea live, interactive, video chat on Microsoft Internet, from the coral reefs of Fiji, celebrating the International Year of the Reef and answering questions from 'armchair divers' throughout the world

Acting on a childhood dream to build cities under the sea, Jean-Michel pursued a degree in architecture, graduating from the Paris School of Architecture in 1964. He remains a member of the Ordre National des Architectes, the French counterpart of the American Institute of Architects. Artificial floating islands, schools, and an advanced marine studies center in Marseilles, France, are among his projects.

More recently, he has been involved with the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort, designed to demonstrate an environmentally and culturally oriented family resort, proving to the business community the economic benefits of exercising environmental concern and design. In order to expand the impact of ecological tourism, he created L’Aventure Jean-Michel Cousteau, a flagship dive operation at the resort in Fiji that bears his name. He is currently forming an action partnership to expand this ecologically responsible model to other sites. In 2005, the resort was awarded Conde Naste’s highest award for small resort environmental design.

>In 1969, Jean-Michel headed the team that transformed a 100,000 square foot section of the former ocean liner, Queen Mary, into the Living Sea Museum in Long Beach, California. He was a member of the selection committee for the International NASA/AIA Space Station design competition in 1972. He also directed the design and development of the Parc Oceanique Cousteau in Paris, a public attraction that introduced new ways of teaching visitors about the ocean without captive animals.

In recognition of his many and diverse contributions to learning, Pepperdine University awarded Jean-Michel an Honorary Doctor’s Degree in Humane Letters in 1976. He has received DEMA’s 1994 Reaching Out Award and the 1995 NOGI Award from the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences. In 1996, Jean-Michel was awarded the SeaKeepers Award from Showboats International, and the John M. Olguin Marine Environment Award from the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.