Status Updates From Diving Companions: Sea Lion...

The adventures of Pepito and Christobald. Such a rollercoaster ride.

Page 227 is the best page in the entire series. Cousteau obviously had fun writing it too. I’m in tears. WALRUS ANTICS.

Cousteau deftly navigates the politicized waters of anthropology on his mission. He remains objective and defers to native judgement, refraining from ethnocentrism bias whenever he recognizes it in himself. He laments the loss of native culture when the natives themselves celebrate their progress; I’m not sure how that sentiment would hold up in the modern age, but I appreciate his empathy for cultural loss.

“And, above all, man himself is everywhere, with his clumsy curiosity and his inadvertent brutality.”

Cousteau writes about Pepito and Christobald like he regrets his choices. “I felt very sad and sorry for Christobald… I have promised myself that one day we will set him free, but when we do, it will be in such a way that he may have a normal life.” I think Cousteau realized the full ethical implications of his work too late, too far into the research. I think he wouldn’t do such a thing as this again.