Famed aquanaut and ocean conservationist Fabian Cousteau shares his goal of building what he calls an "international space station for the deep sea" to advance underwater research.
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00:00Welcome to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. I'm your host, Jeff Cornish. On this show,
00:17we go beyond the forecast, giving you the how and why on all the cool and interesting
00:20things that you've wondered about and always wanted to ask in the fields of weather, space
00:25and science. Today, we're going to talk about the oceans and seas, exploration and research.
00:32We're talking to someone who wants to create what he has described as the international
00:37space station of the deep sea. It is my pleasure to welcome our expert, ocean conservationist
00:43and aquanaut, Fabian Cousteau. Obviously, that is a familiar last name for many reasons.
00:52Fabian is the third generation of Cousteau's exploring and teaching us about underwater
00:57life. This started with his grandfather, Jacques Cousteau, and continued with his father, Jean
01:02Michel. Fabian, thank you so much for joining us today.
01:06Great to be here, Jeff. Thank you for having me.
01:08This is great stuff. It's an honor to talk to you and have some time here with you. We're
01:12going to talk more about your grandfather and father, but also you. You've done some
01:15amazing things and you continue to do that. I imagine growing up as a kid with these two
01:22monumental figures in your life, it may be hard not to be influenced to work in this
01:28field and to discover more.
01:31I'm going to blame it squarely on the ocean. Although having a grandfather or grandparents
01:38and parents who are all very curious about the ocean world and went and explored for
01:44decades, you know, once you immerse yourself into the ocean and see its wonders for the
01:51first time. For me, it was my classroom growing up. I've never lost the curiosity and the
01:57desire to go longer, deeper, and further.
02:01You're always working on something. One big project that you're currently working on is
02:05Proteus, which is basically going to be an international space station of the deep sea.
02:11What kinds of things are you hoping to study with this?
02:14That's a great example or great illustration. Proteus, being named after the eldest son of
02:20Poseidon, who was the shepherd of the sea and the keeper of knowledge, is really the
02:26image that we'd like to portray for this most advanced international space station under
02:32the sea. What we'll be studying with that are all sorts of things, from analogs for
02:36space to why climate change is reacting the way it is in our various parts of the world,
02:44whether we're underwater or above. As you know, the ocean is our great barometer and
02:49has a very big role to play in those kinds of situations, as well as microplastics dissolution,
02:56hydrocarbon, etc., etc., etc., and the sexy stuff, finding new species and new cures for
03:02different diseases such as cancer. That's really the essence of exploration, is the
03:08unknown and looking at the undersea rainforest.
03:13That's really, really fascinating. Fabian, would this be one stationary station or would
03:17there be multiple? Would they be able to move? What kind of features are they going to have?
03:21These are great questions that we've really wrestled with and ironed out over the last
03:26few years. Did we want to be mobile? Did we want to be stationary? For all sorts of reasons,
03:32especially for mid- and long-term research, being stationary is a lot more efficient than
03:39having a mobile platform. There are mobile platforms out there already. Satellites, AUVs,
03:46which are autonomous vehicles, submarines, boats, diving, etc. We're really aiming to
03:52be that missing tool in the toolbox of ocean exploration, which gives us unprecedented
03:58access to the bottom world the way the others just simply can't.
04:03Where might this be planted when it is built?
04:08I love your word, planting. We use it a lot. The first of these stationary space stations
04:16will be in Curaçao. Curaçao, for those who don't know, is one of the southernmost islands
04:22in the Caribbean. It's a chain from Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. They're Dutch protectorates
04:29or municipalities. That really gives us a strategic location on one of the last two
04:36remaining accruing coral reefs in the entire Caribbean. We get to explore a very little
04:43known coral reef ecosystem. We get to be in a place that's got a lot of advantages, both
04:50in shallow and deep water, which for us is extraordinarily important for all the various
04:56types of research that we're aiming to do.
04:59Have you encountered any big challenges in the process getting you to this point?
05:04There are always challenges with these out-of-the-box ideas when we're pushing the boundaries of
05:09the known, when we're looking at different approaches that are unconventional. Of course,
05:16fundraising is always one of those things, but luckily for us, we're doing well in that
05:22department, and we'll keep pushing forward on that. But being in the ocean 24-7 in situ
05:28gives us a platform to work from for weeks at a time that gives us unprecedented access
05:35to the bottom world, in the sense that we can go out as saturation divers, literally
05:40as aquanauts, into the water column 10, 12, or more hours a day, which gives us that access
05:47that we simply can't have any other way, especially that human technological interface that everyone
05:55is driving at these days.
05:57If we go back about 10 years to 2014 and the inspiration for Proteus Mission 31, where
06:04you honored your grandfather's original underwater living experiment by doing your own undersea
06:09expedition for 31 days. I get a little wrinkly after that length of time. What did you learn
06:14from that expedition, and how does that play into getting ready for Proteus?
06:18Well, Proteus is really built on the pioneering efforts of past generations of aquanauts,
06:26including, of course, the ones that have had the privilege of living on Aquarius. And even
06:32previous to that, with my grandfather's pioneering efforts of building the first underwater habitats
06:38back in the 1960s. Now, Aquarius was, at that time, the only remaining undersea marine platform,
06:45a glorious 400 internal square feet. So if you live in New York City or Paris or Kuala
06:51Lumpur, I'm sure you're very familiar with living with six roommates in 400 square feet
06:57of space. And that's what we did underwater. But what happened there was twofold. We had
07:03two hypotheses. One, or two experiments. One, how much science can we do in 31 days, a full
07:09lunar cycle? And do people care, and how can we reach the general public that may never
07:16get a chance to go scuba diving or even snorkeling? And on both those accounts, it just further
07:23proved that there's a real need and necessity for having these underwater marine laboratories
07:29strategically placed in different parts of the world.
07:32That makes great sense. So what was the most difficult part of living underwater for 31
07:37days?
07:38Well, as a French person, I'd say the most difficult part for me was the food. The food
07:43was absolutely awful. Quite literally, astronaut food or freeze-dried food. Because we burn
07:50three times as many calories in saturation to keep our bodies warm, and because of the
07:56aerobic activity of scuba diving, we had to eat three times as much of that terrible food.
08:02Now aside from being slightly facetious on that, the length of time being just separated
08:10from friends and family is always difficult. Because as a saturation diver, you might as
08:15well be on the far side of the moon. It's just as remote, it's just as much of an extreme
08:21environment. And as opposed to scuba diving recreationally, where you can go back to the
08:26surface any time you want, here we have to undergo extensive decompression obligations
08:32before we reach back to the surface and go back home.
08:36And so with that said, little creature comforts were some of our psychological accoutrements
08:46that would allow for us to really be able to withstand psychologically those separations.
08:53And those are really good analogs for space exploration and colonization.
08:57That's very interesting. It is a head game, I'm sure, in many, many ways. Well, we do
09:02want to get to our first viewer question now. This comes from Ben in South Carolina. And
09:06Ben writes, what was your life growing up like as the grandson of Jacques Cousteau?
09:14I get this question a lot. Thank you, Ben. That's a great question. It sounds sexy. Because
09:21I had the privilege of diving from the ripe old age of four years old, scuba diving, I've
09:30been on expeditions since I was seven. And that was the classroom growing up. It was
09:34also the training ground. And lest you think that just because I was the grandson of, I
09:40got the glorious task of scraping the barnacles off the hull for an entire summer as my first
09:46job. And then secondarily, painting the rails, and then eventually worked my way up to doing
09:53the graveyard shift at the helm of Calypso while we were underway on expedition. Eventually,
09:59I did get the honor of being able to join the dive crew, in which you see some of that
10:06imagery in those past films. But it was a real learning experience, a humbling one,
10:12and one that was amazing. I could not express how integral that was to why I am who I am today.
10:22Well, we're looking forward to speaking with you some more here just after the break. We
10:25have plenty more to talk about. But coming up later in WeatherWise, we're going to be
10:30diving into the life of Jacques Cousteau, Fabian's grandfather, with three interesting
10:34things you might not know about him. And also, we're going to talk about Fabian's dedication
10:39to conservation and how his research is helping people learn about the deep blue sea. We're
10:44going to answer more of your viewer questions as well when Ask the Experts returns.
11:05Welcome back to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. I'm your host, Jeff Cornish, and we are back
11:08with aquanaut and ocean conservationist Fabian Cousteau as we talk about the further exploration
11:15and adaptation to potential life even under the sea for humans. So, Fabian, we know one
11:21of the important things that you have done is establishing the Fabian Cousteau Ocean
11:25Learning Center. So, what motivated you to create this?
11:30That's a great question. You know, Jeff, I feel as a third-generation storyteller and
11:36explorer that we always go out there and we can only tell about 1% of the story on film.
11:45And most of the time, there's a conservation message these days, and one that's not always
11:50a happy one. And so, I felt that as a storyteller, we needed to also engage people in proactive
11:58movements, in ways in which they might be able to be part of the solution rather than
12:04just feeling like they're part of the problem. So, the Ocean Learning Center is just that.
12:09It's sea-learn-do, is to be able to go and protect baby sea turtles by going out there,
12:14getting wet, getting dirty, collecting eggs in some cases, depending on the country, building
12:20pens, working with the local communities, which is extraordinarily important, having
12:25them feel vested interest in the solution-building process, and learning something about marine
12:31biology and just why oceans are so important, whether it's a sea turtle, a piece of coral,
12:39a mangrove. Why is that so important to a human being, a terrestrial creature? And in
12:45that ability to be able to appreciate the ocean world, whether you want to go diving
12:52or not, is an integral part of the solution-building process for all of us on land.
13:00Really, really cool. I had first-hand experience in my kayak coming across a large sea turtle
13:06off the coast of South Carolina a few years back with my niece, and it was just awesome.
13:09The first-hand experience can change you in a big way, so that's cool you're providing
13:13that for younger people. What types of research are you currently doing, and what's your next
13:18big project on the horizon?
13:20Yeah, well, we're emotional creatures, so you always want to engage people emotionally
13:26and how they feel about things, and then you talk about the science and the logics. A lot
13:31of these projects are based in that. Obviously, we do a lot of filming projects, whether it
13:37be just pure ocean exploration, including wrecks, to new species, to new weird places,
13:45to building different technologies that can get us there, including, of course, as we
13:51mentioned before, which is PROTEUS, which is the International Space Station of the
13:55Sea, or Advanced Underwater Research Station. That's one of our large projects, and everything
13:59in between, trying to build new sensor technologies. That opens up, hopefully, people's minds
14:08that may want to go and dive into different careers in the ocean, but at the end of the
14:14day, it's about empowering people and impassioning them into ocean conservation and consciousness,
14:21changing our language. Why are we saying, throw something away? There is no such thing
14:25as a way in something like the Earth, which is a closed-loop system. It's our life support
14:30system. It's our natural resource bank account, and we need to start thinking about ways in
14:35which we can shepherd these integral parts of why we exist, what makes us possible in
14:43our everyday lives, in people that struggle to make ends meet, that need to put a roof
14:50over the heads of their families. Why does the ocean matter to them? At the end of the
14:55day, if they can get that, and they start changing their behavior, then I think as a
15:00global community, we'll be in a much better place for our children.
15:04One of the things that we often see and hear about when talking about climate change is
15:08rising ocean temperatures and sea level rise. We've got thermal expansion, melting ice,
15:14elevating the levels as well. How is this impacting the ocean as a whole?
15:19Well, climate change, it's a circular system, right? And the ocean plays a vital role as
15:25a great barometer, as a great mitigator of temperature variations. It creates, or helps
15:31create some of our storm patterns, of course, or at least it takes a big role in that. And
15:36so when the oceans, the ocean temperatures rise, it changes the dynamic in the ocean,
15:43including, of course, coral reef ecosystems. Look at a coral reef as an underwater city,
15:50and those hotels, those restaurants, those medical stations, the coral reef ecosystem
15:58is home to about 70% of the species in the undersea world. Most of the undersea species
16:06depend on coral reef ecosystems at some point in their transient lives. And in any event,
16:13the temperatures which affect coral reefs, as we've all heard 1,001 times, also affect
16:19reproductive cycles, migratory patterns, and all sorts of other things that affect us,
16:25whether we be fishermen, or whether we just enjoy eating, or whether we enjoy farming.
16:32Those things are fundamental implications of what happens if the water temperatures
16:38or the sea temperatures, in this case, rise. And we're seeing the very real repercussions
16:43in our daily lives. Increased prices, storms that are creating all sorts of chaos on land.
16:50You guys know this better than anyone. This is a vital part of the puzzle of climate change-related
16:57issues, and we need to study the ocean in much, much deeper terms, literally and figuratively,
17:03in order to find better solutions and maybe better approaches for our storm mitigation.
17:10That's very well said. We appreciate all of your insight, and we do want to thank you,
17:14Fabian Crusteau, so much for joining us today. It's an honor to meet you and talk to you,
17:18and again, hear some of your stories. Here's just a small little slice of some of the things
17:22you've been doing, and up to in recent years and months. Thanks again, Fabian.
17:28Thank you so much.
17:29It's our pleasure.
17:30Have a great day.
17:31And don't forget, when you have a question about weather, space, or science, you can
17:34always write to us or send us a video question at AskTheExperts at AccuWeather.com. You can
17:39also call us at 888-566-6606.
17:45And coming up next, we're going to reveal three interesting things about legendary oceanographer
17:49Jacques Cousteau, Fabian's grandfather. Ask the Experts returns after a quick break.
18:01Welcome back to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. It's now time for WeatherWise, and today,
18:10one of our three interesting things segments, we're going to give you three interesting
18:13things about Jacques Cousteau, the ocean exploration pioneer, who became a household name in the
18:181960s and 70s, and is still today. And his work continued with his son, Jean-Michel,
18:24and currently with his grandson, Fabian.
18:27So first, Jacques Cousteau is known as the father of scuba diving. In 1943, Cousteau
18:33co-invented the Aqualung. He and a French engineer patented a diving system with a demand
18:39regulator to control the oxygen release as needed. And this was the first self-contained
18:44underwater breathing apparatus, and as many of you know, that acronym is the origin of
18:49the word scuba. It revolutionized underwater exploration.
18:53In 1947, using the Aqualung, Cousteau set a world record for free diving. While doing
18:59underwater research for the French Navy, he reached a depth of 300 feet under the sea.
19:05His team's research enabled the timing techniques needed for the human body to adjust to the
19:10pressure changes of deep sea diving.
19:13And finally, how many times have you seen a shark cage? That's another Jacques Cousteau
19:17invention. In 1956, he created a metal cage that would protect divers. They could observe
19:24the ocean predators up close, but the sturdy cage prevented the sharks from getting through
19:29to an attack.
19:31Thanks so much for joining us here on AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. I'm Jeff Cornish, and remember
19:35when you have a question about weather, space, or science, you can email us at asktheexperts
19:40at accuweather.com or call us at 888-566-6606. Have a great one.