Peter Caty/The Mirror
She has looked a whale in the eye in the depths of the Pacific. She has snorkeled with anacondas in the Amazon. She has crawled next to pumas in Chile.
Celine Cousteau, granddaughter of French explorer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau and daughter of ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau, spoke at the last Open Visions Forum event of the school year, at Fairfield University Monday night.
Cousteau, who went on her first expedition to the Amazon at age nine, spoke about People and the Natural World: An Exploration of Connections, by way of her personal experiences to a full audience of students, faculty, and Fairfield locals.
“It’s great that you care; it doesn’t matter unless you do something,” said Cousteau. As both an adventurous filmmaker and an environmental speaker, Cousteau is an active advocate for the preservation of the natural world.
Throughout her travels, she makes documentary films of both indigenous people and wildlife, which are utilized by the media and non-profit organizations to get recognized and gain funding for their projects.
Although she cannot single-handedly preserve the Earth’s resources, Cousteau hopes that filming and sharing her knowledge and experiences with audiences will put us one step further to conserving our environment.
“I was impressed by her dedication,” said Rachel Martin ‘14. “She said that every time she leaves the house she unplugs everything. I was also surprised at the [amount] of fish she avoids eating.”
Cousteau makes a point of not eating a wide variety of certain seafood; not because she doesn’t like the taste, but because of the way it is caught and the abundance of its population.
Although some people may question why she does not choose to abstain from other animal meats as well, such as beef and pork, Cousteau said that “she chose oceans,” but everyone should choose their own interest and their own way to make a difference.
Cousteau said that although she has nothing but respect for her grandfather and father, her true inspiration came from her mother and grandmother. Little known to many, these women were as involved in the expeditions as their husbands.
Even though they rarely appeared in photos or in films, Cousteau’s mother and grandmother always accompanied their husbands, and were behind the cameras for many expeditions.
Cousteau said that perhaps one of the most eye-opening experiences for her was “picking up pieces of people’s lives” after destruction of the tsunami in Chile and her encounter with a woman who had survived the natural disaster.
Although her home and small business sank to the bottom of the bay, nearly taking her with them, the 65-year-old Chilean woman found refuge in her boat; the lone possession she had left.
When Cousteau asked the woman if she hated the ocean, for it had taken away everything that she owned, the Chilean woman replied no. Instead, she said she loved the sea more after the tsunami, because it had spared her life; the most important possession she had.
On a lighter note, Cousteau recounted several of her most memorable experiences, including an encounter with an anaconda while diving, swimming with whales and icebergs, and also witnessing a family of pumas in their natural habitat.
Despite her adventures and encounters with exotic wildlife, Cousteau is the first to say that she is certainly not fearless. “Anacondas are fine, but I don’t like spiders,” she said laughing, “[I have] an irrational fear [of spiders].”
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