Life and Death in a Coral Sea

by Jacques-Yves Cousteau

1971, Paperback, 302 pages, includes an illustrated glossary and 122 color photographs

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Science

302 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Born in 1910, was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, and filmmaker, who studied the sea. Although he is most famous to us from his television programmes, he also co-developed the aqua-lung, and pioneered marine conservation as a political and scientific priority.
In the Calypso, an ex-Royal Navy minesweeper, Cousteau visited the most interesting waters of the planet. During these trips he produced many books and films. He gained three Oscars for; The Silent World, The Golden Fish, and World Without Sun, as well as many other top awards including the Palme d'Or in 1956 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Cousteau liked to call himself an "oceanographic technician". He was in reality a sophisticated lover of nature who found a way of communicating complex scientific and biological concepts to ordinary people. While he was criticised at the time by some academics for failing to express science 'properly', his work permitted many people to explore the resources of the "blue continent". As an example of his influence, in 1975, folk singer John Denver composed the song "Calypso" as a tribute to Cousteau and his research ship Calypso. The song reached the number one position on the Billboard 100 charts.
Cousteau's work did a great deal to popularize knowledge of underwater biology and was featured in the long-lived documentary television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau which began in 1968. On January 11, 1996, the Calypso sank in Singapore harbour. Cousteau died on June 25, 1997 - his work is continued by his son Jean-Michel and his grandson Fabien, who studies sharks from a custom-built shark-shaped submarine.

Reviews

[kev · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are the virus.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Getting into the book took me a while but once I finished the book, I didn't want it to end. So many great moments and stories. I learned a lot about the ocean and coral that I didn't know before.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

To put it simply:


PT: RATW: Comoros, Seychelles (!!!!), diving books, non-fic, books that broke me out of a reading slump

WIL:
1) Cousteau writes like a dreamer. You can just FEEL it behind the words. He means everything he says, and he loves what he does so fully and so DEEPLY. I wanna find something like that. Just...wow.

2) UNFAZED??? I know he downplays the chaos because this isn't meant to be a dramatic account of his journey. It's meant to be more awe-inspiring. But my goodness he really just skips over those parts where his son almost DIED T W I C E in like a twenty-minute period. And then he talks about encountering aggressive/territorial animals like it's nothing? Like "oh that fish just took a chunk out of my buddy's finger ha ha so funny!!" COUSTEAU. MY DUDE. W H A T . It made the whole thing kind of feel like an adventure... like you could flip the page and suddenly, oh my, there's a whole new adventure that the crew aboard the Calypso can only escape by the skin of their teeth! Exciting!!

3) Underwater buddy. He gets it. He understands the need to just hang out at the bottom of the ocean for as long as your tank and decompression tables will allow. Not everyone understands but Cousteau really does. Excuse me while I schedule another dive.

4) Explorer Vibes TM. Same with Kon Tiki. It makes my heart experience a crescendo.

5) Inspiring. I wanna see the WORLD and look at the OCEANS and investigate AQUATIC GEOSTRATIGRAPHY and PAINT UNDERWATER like all the nerds aboard the calypso. GOD they're so cool. I mean, just imagine a life where you get to hang out on a ship all day and befriend the local fish and people around various island clusters. And they get to FILM ALL OF IT and DIVE to unprecedented depths can you hear me SCREAMING at how amazing that all is???

WIDL
1) no <3. This is flawless. Cousteau could run me over with his boat and push me into an anemone, a grouper, and a man-o-war (on separate and multiple occasions) and I'd still think he's the coolest person.

[Littlevision · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life and Death in a Coral Sea is a great introduction to coral seas and sea exploration - the first book I've seriously read on the subject. The beautiful narrative held my attention better than any television programme I've watched about sea life. Jacques-Yves Cousteau not only documents the life of coral reefs and their inhabitants, but also describes what it's like to live on the sea in close quarters with many other men (erm... not what it sounds like, I swear!). The book is rather like a "behind-the-scenes" to the t.v. series (which I've yet to see), with Cousteau describing how the sequences were filmed for the shows and the various problems, mechanical and otherwise, experienced during the expedition.

I can't give it less than five stars because I never once got bored with it. Also, the appendices are excellent and there are some beautiful (although technologically outdated) photographs. Finally, it's easy to read without being exceedingly elementary.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Cousteau writing. While not as intriguing as some of his others, it is a worthy read.

[Paulita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got me hooked! And I have never turned back.