Jacques Cousteau was a fixture of my youth.  We usually argued over what we would watch on TV in the evenings, but there weren’t any arguments when The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau was on.  I wanted scuba gear the way, I suppose, some teenagers wanted a car.  When I was 15 my Dad surprised me and my brother with two sets of US Divers gear, including the brand new 80 cubic feet aluminum tanks.  My brother and I got certified went on checkout dives and would takes the car off to Florida for dive trips with pals.  Our favorite was the jetties in Panama City Beach, in St. Andrews State Park.  Hard to believe Jacques Cousteau has been dead 20 years. I wonder if my kids even know who he is.  Anyway, ran across this long article written in the 1990s but only now published for the first time.  From the Daily Beast.

Explorer, Eco-Warrior, Spy: The Battles of Jacques Cousteau