A&E - The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau - Collection One (1991)

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A&E - The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau - Collection One (1991)

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Between the years of 1966-1976, millions of viewers were held spellbound as audiences around the world would regularly tune in to see what new aquatic wonders had been captured on film by Jacques Cousteau and the crew of his ship, Calypso, on their decade-long adventure around the world. It was a truly pioneering programme that brought the hidden wonders of the world's oceans into their living rooms for the first time. A pioneer of marine biology as well as the technology involved in underwater exploration, Jacques Cousteau's work is a colourful, revealing window onto a world that few of us will ever see first-hand. This comprehensive 36-episode series follows the crew as they study life in every corner of the globe: from sharks in the Red Sea to penguins in Antarctica, from coral reefs to hippos, octopus to sea otters. Taking time to study the intimate behavior of a wide spectrum of animals in their natural environment, each new variety of marine life they encounter is approached with the same passion, deep interest and respect. A tough mission it may be, but whether they are swimming with whales or diving for sunken treasure, life on board Calypso is never dull. The creators of the first underwater nature documentaries ever filmed, Cousteau and his crew wrote the rules as they went along. If they saw a creature struggling or suffering in the wild, they would be just as likely to intervene and lend a hand as to document the harsh realities of the natural world. Profoundly respectful of nature but never sentimental, the crew of Calypso and their amazing adventures reveal almost as much about the depths of human compassion as they do the depths of our verdant oceans.

Part 1: Sharks
Captain Cousteau and his ship the Calypso visit the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden in order to study shark behaviour and to test methods of protecting shipwreck and air crash victims from shark attacks.

Part 2: Savage World of the Coral Jungle
The team travels to the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean, an area teeming with animal and plant life, and where numemous complex relationships between different species are played out on a daily basis.

Part 3: Search in the Deep
The island ot Europa, in the Mozambique Channel between Africa and Madagascar, is the foremost breeding ground of the mysterious sea turtle. The crew's cameras follow the turtles' mating rituals, the females' laboured journey up the beach to lay their eggs, and the fight for survival of the newly-hatched babies.

Part 4: Whales
The Calypso divers study finback, sperm and killer whales, monitoring their migratory habits by planting small tags in their skin. Captain Cousteau also recounts the romance and legend of the great whales.

Part 5: Unexpected Voyage of Pepito and Cristobal
Captain Cousteau and the crew of the Calypso adopt a pair of fur seals off the Cape of Good Hope. During an Atlantic crossing the men begin to establish a relationship of trust and friendship with the mammals.

Part 6: Sunken Treasure
The crew sets out on a treasure hunt to the Caribbean in search of the wreck of La Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, a Spanish ship that sank over 300 years ago carryinq more than $2m in silver and gold.

Part 7: Legend of Lake Titicaca
The divers travel inland to Peru's Lake Titicaca, testing experimental techniques for diving at high altitude for the first time. Deep in the lake they discover a unique species of frog whose lungs have atrophied like fish, they die when removed from the water.

Part 8: The Desert Whales
The crew of the Calypso studies the little-known California grey whale, as this once-endangered species embarks on its 5,000-mile annual breeding migration. The team observes the intimate relationships between these creatures, including mating and the feeding of a baby grey.

Part 9: The Night of the Squid
In the waters off southern California the Calypso happens upon the savage, yet touching, spawning ritual of the sea arrow squids of the Pacific. From their exotic mating dance to the microscopic battle for survival of the newly-hatched young, the entire cycle is captured on film by the crew.

Part 10: Return of the Sea Elephants
Cousteau and his team study the life and death of the sea elephant, a massive sea mammal which returns each year to the small island of Guadalupe for ritual combat, mating and breeding. Finally, the divers discover the sea elephants' secret graveyard, 25 fathoms below the waves.

Part 11: Those Incredible Diving Machines
The history of underwater exploration is traced from the days of Alexander the Great to the development of the aqualung in 1942, the first bathyscaphe in 1948, the diving saucer in 1959, through to a new fleet of modern deep sea submersibles.

Part 12: The Water Planet
After more than 140,000 nautical miles travelled aboard the Calypso, and having shot around two million feet of film, Cousteau shares his personal thoughts on the challenges they face filming the infinite phenomena of the water planet.

Part 13: Tragedy of the Red Salmon
The Cousteau team follows the spawninq migration of the red sockeye salmon from the open sea to the Alaskan waters of their birth, up the Salmon River to remote Fraser Lake.

Part 14: Lagoon of Lost Ships
Truk lagoon in the South Pacific, the site of a fierce battle during WWII, is now home to around 50 sunken Japanese vessels. The divers discover an uncharted sunken freighter, complete with the skeletons of its long-dead crew.

Part 15: The Dragons of Galapagos
The crew journey to the Galapagos Islands to study the marine iguana, a mysterious dragon-like creature that has reversed the course of evolution and returned to the sea for food and survival.

Part 16: Secrets of the Sunken Caves
The strange geological phenomenon of 'blue holes' is investigated by Captain Cousteau and his team, as they discover an undersea 'cathedral' one hundred feet below the surface.

Part 17: The Unsinkable Sea Otter
In the North Aleutian Islands, Cousteau and his crew observe the rough courtship and tender mating of the sea otter, before continuing to Monterey where the otter's existence is being threatened by man-made hazards such as pollution and illegal hunting.

Part 18: The Forgotten Mermaids
The crew travels to the cypress glades of East Florida to film the manatee, a vegetarian creature of the sea whose closest living relative is the elephant. Learning of the plight of 'Sewer Sam', a manatee trapped in the sewers of Miami, the team attempts to help return Sam to the river.

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A&E - The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau - Collection One (1991)

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A&E - The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau - Collection One (1991)

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A&E - The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau - Collection One (1991)

Close

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A&E - The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau - Collection One (1991)

Close