Frederica Freyberg:
We shift gears now to explore an environmental question. What's a French oceanographer doing in Stevens Point, Wisconsin?  The answer can be summarized in one word... Cousteau.  The second generation of the Jacques Cousteau undersea legacy, Jean Michel Cousteau, was a visiting scholar at UW-Stevens Point this week. I spoke with Mr. Cousteau late Wednesday.  Thank you very much for joining us. It's a thrill to be speaking with you.  

Jean Michel Cousteau:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
Well, now the closest things to oceans in Wisconsin are the Great Lakes. What are you doing at UW-Stevens Point?

Jean Michel Cousteau:
I'm trying to emphasize the fact that everything is connected and wherever you are on the planet, we are linked to the ocean. There's only one water system. It is our life support system. And we need to take care of it. Real issues which are being emphasized by the fact that we add another 100 million people to the planet and those resources are critical for our survival and the quality of our lives. So I think having the privilege of being in school or university and meeting the future decision-makers while they have precisely to learn and to understand when they will become the decision-makers, whether it's in industries, at home or in politics. They will be making better decisions.

Frederica Freyberg:
Your bio says that your Ocean Futures Society serves as a voice for the ocean. I think I've just heard some of that voice. But how do you serve as the voice?

Jean Michel Cousteau:
Well, we serve as inviting people to have access to our Web site, oceanfutures.org, and they can ask us questions, and we can answer them. We also produce television programs. We have educational programs. Ambassador of the environment and sustainable reefs, sustainable rain forest. And we do a lot of diplomatic work. Which brings me to sit down with some of the top decision-makers, such as the President of the United States, President of France. I was last week with the secretary general of the United Nations. Or the head of some of most extraordinary brains on the planet, the president of the Club of Rome. And those people who are in power need to be made aware and to some extent educated in order for them to make better decisions.

Frederica Freyberg:
What are the biggest threats to the world's oceans right now?  

Jean Michel Cousteau:
Other than us?  

Frederica Freyberg:
Including us.  

Jean Michel Cousteau:
It's the way we behave. You know, we talk about climate change. There's a major conference coming up in December, and we tend to forget about the role that the ocean plays, particularly when it comes to climate change. And we also need to emphasize the fact that we use the ocean as a sewer. It's affecting the food chain. We're destroying all the coastal habitats, which are so critical for reproduction and for protection of the coastlines for human beings. Also, from an economical point of view. And we are fishing more fish than the ocean can produce, so we're heading toward bankruptcy. So all these issues need to be addressed and solutions exist and we can do it almost overnight. So it's not an issue, it’s impossible, too late, et cetera. It's not. And the further we wait, the more difficult it's going to be, the more painful it's going to be, and I think we’re in a perfect time now, with the economical crisis, which is bringing us back to realities, that we going to be able to do it.

Frederica Freyberg:
Toward this end of educating people, you've produced is it 75 films?  

Jean Michel Cousteau:
I've produced more than 75 films. Now, this is all — I'm over 90 shows. And I will continue as long as possible. I'm working right now on honoring my father at the occasion of his 100th anniversary, so I'm producing another show which may end up being an one-hour or maybe a feature film length. But we continue to do our educational programs and communicating with decision-makers and that's what Ocean Futures is all about.

Frederica Freyberg:
What is the coolest undersea place you ever went?

Jean Michel Cousteau:
Well, there's so many so many. Some of them I don't want to tell because I want to protect them. But being in Papua New Guinea in 1988 and swimming with Orcas, or killer whales, which have never hurt anyone in the open ocean, only in captivity, they allowed us to stay with them when they were fishing. They would disappear out of sight and come back with an entire shark in their mouth and let it go in front of us like, you know, playing with their food or toys. And then ultimately they would destroy the shark and then very delicately eat the liver and abandon everything else, being very wasteful, just like we are. They are the equivalent of the human species in the ocean. They are to the ocean what we are to the land. They can kill anything in the ocean, nobody kills them, just like we do. We're learning a lot about them, which is from the Arctic to the Antarctic, just like we find humans. But our territory is a third of their territory.

Frederica Freyberg:
You started our interview by talking about reaching the next generation and that is something that you're working toward, even working with Spongebob Square Pants. Are you reaching this younger generation?

Jean Michel Cousteau:
Well, with Spongebob and with "Finding Nemo" we were able to reach millions of people. And for us it's the perfect time because kids are like sponges and whatever information you can pass on, although they're having fun when that happens, I think they're getting better prepared to face up to the problems that we have created and the pressure that is mounting as we add another 100 million people to the planet every year.

Frederica Freyberg:
Jean Michel Cousteau, thank you very much.

Jean Michel Cousteau:
Thank you.