Celine Cousteau says she's most like a marine iguana, with a foot in both the ocean and on land.
Céline Cousteau is the granddaughter of the legendary Jacques Cousteau, daughter of ocean explorer and filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau, and an Ocean Futures Society promoter and Gap Adventures Earth Month ambassador
How do you connect with the vastness of the seas?
I go diving a lot. A lot. I know that diving is not an option for everyone, but a lot of interactions that I have with animals in the ocean are a way to connect with what's going on there in a very real and countable way. Hopefully by bringing those stories back, both verbally and visually, that connects the audience as well.
What's the appeal of free diving?
To be able to train my own body to stay underwater longer. It's not at all about depth, I'm not into free diving for competition … but really to be able to be freer underwater with my own means and spend more time observing the little critters without those imposing bubbles. It's almost reverting back to something that would be natural.
For the average traveller, what is the best way to appreciate the marine environment?
Go somewhere where you can actually have an interaction with the ocean. Not just sitting on the beach but actually get involved in getting in the water - either snorkelling or diving. Something that's increasingly available is travel with companies that work with local people or work with non-profit agencies to give something back.
What is one change you'd like to see with respect to marine conservation in your lifetime?
More Marine Protected Areas. Right now we have - of the entire ocean - only one per cent protected, which is unacceptable. It's been proven that when you protect an area [and]the resources in that area, the fish replenish and there's spillover outside of the Marine Protected Area that goes where fisherman can catch them.
What do people need to know about the oceans?
All of us have an impact on the oceans, no matter how close or far we are from the oceans. One very easy way to see that for everybody is the food we eat: The moment it comes from the ocean you have a direct impact and you have a choice to make. … There's a great guide called the Seafood Watch Guide published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium out of California.
How did your family become such people of the sea?
My grandfather had a love for the sea early on. My grandmother, on my Dad's side, was born in a navy family so she was always a mariner, but maybe not as a profession. Her real home was Calypso (the vessel used in Jacques Cousteau's ocean explorations) and she did everything she could to support my grandfather in his work.
Are you more terrestrial or more marine?
I hate to have to choose. Isn't there a creature that lives both on land and in water? A marine iguana. I sun myself on the terrestrial rocks but I feed in the ocean [ much laughter] I think I just found my animal! In a way I guess I've morphed out of the "family of oceans" and have a foot in water and a foot on land.
What is the one place you wish everyone could see?
I'm actually going to go with the Amazon. I went down there the first time when I was about nine. My grandfather went down there - he was doing his film series on the Amazon, and it had this huge impact on me that I wouldn't know or understand until I was an adult. I know it's expected of me to say somewhere oceans, but I have this relationship with that area and I think it needs a lot of attention.
Special to The Globe and Mail