Cousteau Pretends He's A Shark to Study Their Behavior

Posted Oct 9th 2005 4:06PM by Willy Volk
Filed under: Flora & Fauna, Stories, Experts, Other, Pacific

Fabien Cousteau (Jacques’ grandson) has left the Guadalupe Islands. Now, he’s in Australia where he and Troy – his animatronics-shark/one-person submersible – are trying to study the differences between Mexican great white sharks and those found off Australia. According to Cousteau, the sharks Down Under appear to accept Troy as one of their own, and they defer to it as they would to a dominant female.

Mounted behind Troy’s eyes are cameras that feed footage to a monitor inside the steel-frame, where Cousteau rides. The outer shell is wrapped in Skin Flex, a stretchy plastic used in Hollywood animatronics and for artificial limbs. Cousteau, using scuba gear, controls the shark and makes it interact with real sharks.

I want to believe that Troy works and that Cousteau is learning a lot. However, I met some guys from the Guadalupe Islands a few months ago and asked about Cousteau and Troy. All they did was laugh. What do you think? Do you think this sounds like a winning idea, or is Cousteau grabbing at straws?

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. I can't believe nobody in the media has made mention of the smarter brother Voltaire

Posted at 11:39PM on Oct 12th 2005 by MT

2. The traditional way of studing sharks is by watching them through a cage and attracting them to that cage by chumming, which means that we really don't know much at all about the natural behavior of these animals.

Fabien is an exremely observant guy so if we can learn about sharks this way, he is the perfect person to find that out.

somebody has to try a new approach or there will be no advancement.
falling flat on your face or taking the next step, either way we are moving forward.

Posted at 8:56PM on Nov 1st 2005 by g

3. salut common tu va ?
Envoyer moi un CD de Jacques Yves COUSTEAU de son travaille voila mon adresse
Debabi Rachid cit?hamisti 50 vella cnep N�37 Touggourt 30200 wilaya Ourgla Algerie

Posted at 5:26PM on Nov 10th 2005 by rachid debabi

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