Learning from Fabien Cousteau
We had an amazing opportunity to interview one of the greatest underwater explorers ever - aquanaut, conservationist and filmmaker Fabien Cousteau! I am really grateful that he made time for our interview because he is very busy developing PROTEUS an underwater version of the international space station -- a habitat for aquanauts to live and research in for long periods of time.
Fabien is very knowledgeable about marine life. He taught me about the mantis shrimp, a Stomatopoda, who’s punch is as powerful as a 20-Caliber bullet. He also shared with me that in one of his dives, he saw the rare mantis shrimp battle its mortal enemy, the Octopus.
I also learned that he went on many expeditions with his grandfather Jacques Cousteau, the famous sea explorer, conservationist and scuba pioneer, and Fabien even learned how to scuba dive at age four!
Another interesting part of our conversation was about urban animals, like rats and squirrels. And we talked about how there are so many awesome animals that we can learn about, right under our noses! In our yards, our parks and even our homes.
I asked him how Freetails and kids could help him with the PROTEUS mission, and he said we can help raise awareness for his project and keep on helping and loving animals. I encourage everyone to check out his website, and consider donating to the cause. Did you know 99.5 percent of the world is water, yet only 5 percent of the world's oceans and waterways have been explored… and it holds the secrets to most of our environmental and health problems! This is why Fabien is working hard -- let's join him!
I also learned from Fabien that astronauts and aquanauts could work together in PROTEUS. The reason this could happen is because underwater is similar to the zero-gravity in space. Astronauts could train in PROTEUS -- imagine NASA And FCOLC working together to discover answers to medical problems and climate change and helping endangered animals. He taught me so much, and I hope you learn even more from him by following my next articles about PROTEUS.
You can donate to PROTEUS by clicking HERE.
To learn more about PROTEUS, check out the FCOLC official page.
P.S. It was also cool to interview Fabien because our grandfathers worked together on Deepstar 4000 - my grandpa was selected by Cousteau to be his Chief Pilot and he made over 150 dives involving acoustics, chemical, geological and biological studies.
