He dreamt up and realised a myriad of ideas and projects, led all the expeditions, was a leading film-maker and wrote one of the most popular Cousteau books, Shark. His life and work were cut tragically short when mechanical failure caused the beloved seaplane he had piloted all over the world to crash into the Taos river in Lisbon, Portugal. My sister Alexandra and I feel it is our responsibility to carry on his work. Alexandra founded the Philippe Cousteau Foundation last year to do just that. Since the era of the Cousteau Society, such issues as ghost nets, over-fishing and overpopulation continue to grow hotter.
Ghost nets are one of the worst problems facing our oceans.
When a trawler encounters a storm, it often cuts loose its nets, sometimes miles of them. These go on killing anything in their path until they are full. Then they sink until enough fish rot away for them to float back to the surface and kill again. In the past five years, world fisheries have declined by as much as 30 per cent, forcing many regions to curb their harvesting of the most popular species, and greatly affecting many economies. This is typical of the ignorance of governments and industry about the effects of their actions, yet those likely to be hit hardest will be the fishermen who have no fish left to catch.