page_title: Jacques Cousteau
section_title: 1980–1990s
hierarchical_section_title: Jacques Cousteau / Biography / 1980–1990s
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Cousteaus Tauchboot SP-350 English: Cousteau's Diving Saucer SP-350 Denise ("SP" for soucoupe plongeante -French for "Diving Saucer"- and "350" for "350 metres", her maximum depth) Français&#160;: la soucoupe plongeante de Cousteau, SP-350 Denise («SP» pour «soucoupe plongeante» et «350» pour les 350 mètres de profondeur maximale à laquelle la soucoupe pouvait plonger)
context_page_description: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, AC was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française.
  Cousteau described his underwater world research in a series of books, perhaps the most successful being his first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure, published in 1953. Cousteau also directed films, most notably the documentary adaptation of the book, The Silent World, which won a Palme d'or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. He remained the only person to win a Palme d'Or for a documentary film, until Michael Moore won the award in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.
context_section_description: From 1980 to 1981, he was a regular on the animal reality show Those Amazing Animals, along with Burgess Meredith, Priscilla Presley, and Jim Stafford.
  In 1980, Cousteau traveled to Canada to make two films on the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, Cries from the Deep and St. Lawrence: Stairway to the Sea.
  In 1985, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan.
  From 1986 to 1992, Cousteau released Rediscovery of the World.
  On 24 November 1988, he was elected to the Académie française, chair 17, succeeding Jean Delay. His official reception under the cupola took place on 22 June 1989, the response to his speech of reception being given by Bertrand Poirot-Delpech. After his death, he was replaced by Érik Orsenna on 28 May 1998.
  In June 1990, the composer Jean Michel Jarre paid homage to the commander by entitling his new album Waiting for Cousteau. He also composed the music for Cousteau's documentary "Palawan, the last refuge".
  On 2 December 1990, his wife Simone Cousteau died of cancer.
  In June 1991, in Paris, Jacques-Yves Cousteau remarried, to Francine Triplet, with whom he had (before this marriage) two children, Diane and Pierre-Yves. Francine Cousteau currently continues her husband's work as the head of the Cousteau Foundation and Cousteau Society. From that point, the relations between Jacques-Yves and his elder son worsened.
  In November 1991, Cousteau gave an interview to the UNESCO Courier, in which he stated that he was in favour of human population control and population decrease. Widely quoted on the Internet are these two paragraphs from the interview: "What should we do to eliminate suffering and disease? It's a wonderful idea but perhaps not altogether a beneficial one in the long run. If we try to implement it we may jeopardize the future of our species...It's terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn't even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable".
  In 1992, he was invited to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the United Nations' International Conference on Environment and Development, and then he became a regular consultant for the UN and the World Bank.
  In 1995, he sued his son, who was advertising "Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort", to prevent him from using the Cousteau name for business purposes in the United States.
  On 11 January 1996, Calypso was accidentally rammed and sunk in the port of Singapore by a barge. The Calypso was refloated and towed home to France.
caption: Cousteau's Diving Saucer
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