Friday, June 11, marked the hundredth birthday of the renowned ocean explorer, the late Jacques Cousteau – the ‘par excellence’ visionary, who did not want the seas to become “the last sewer” of humanity; and made relentless attempts to educate millions of people about the Earth’s oceans and its inhabitants, and inspire their protection.

With his iconic red beanie and his Calypso ship, the French marine explorer, filmmaker, inventor, and conservationist – who died in 1997 - practically sailed the world for a large part of late 20th century.

Cousteau, who “started out as a spear fisherman and a world explorer, not as a guardian”, as the Cousteau Society’s spokesperson Clark Lee Merriam put it, always dreamed of becoming a heroic aviator – a dream that was tragically cut short by an early car accident. However, to recover from multiple fractures, he was prescribed intensive swimming - an activity that only further served as a catalyst for his passion for sea life.

Cousteau invented scuba equipment; made documentaries to familiarize people with the world under water; and pioneered underwater base camps. He also helped limit commercial whaling by steering the passage of the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986; and helped stop underwater dumping of nuclear waste.

Noting that if Cousteau were alive, he would be saddened at the present-day pollution, over-fishing, and other threats to the world’s oceans, Bill Eichbaum – VP of marine and Arctic policy at World Wildlife Fund – added that Cousteau would also have been “articulate and aggressive in urging governments, companies, and individuals to protect the environment.”