Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau: Oceanographer

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PLOWBOY: Sir, what has been done about the starfish on the Great Barrier Reef? Is anything being done to stop that?

COUSTEAU: The issues are very confused here. Yes, I was in Truk Island in Micronesia with the team of 35 or 40 scientists who were investigating this thing last summer. Yes, the starfish are invading the reefs, not only of Australia, but of Guam, of Micronesia, everywhere. Yes, they are eating away coral, leaving big patches of dead coral behind them.

But they are not responsible. They are just instrumental in a very complicated process which man has started. These star fish have existed for millions of years and they have never done that damage. They are eating coral, but in limited quantities, because they have enemies of their own. Once man is suppressing these enemies, which are a number of fish, a number of the large shellfish who attack and kill the starfish. Now these are sold to tourists, so they are extensively overfished; they are no more on Guam, and the starfish proliferate.

So it's always the same thing. We destroy the balance of nature and, after that, we accuse one starfish and we send teams to destroy the starfish; so, after destroying the starfish, you have to destroy the enemy of the starfish, or he is going to come in great numbers, and, at the end, you will stay alone with a few mosquitoes on the earth.

PLOWBOY: Captain Cousteau, I have been curious as to the possible biological effect of the loss of one of the large super tankers which are now being built and I noticed the story this morning – two paragraphs. "The 207,000-ton Dutch tanker MARPESSA on its maiden voyage, much like the TITANIC, has exploded, caught fire, and has been abandoned." Can you tell us what 207,000 tons of crude oil might possibly do?

COUSTEAU: About 4% of the exhaust of the yachts.

PLOWBOY: What could this do as a unit dropped into the ocean?

COUSTEAU: It can do tremendous damage in a limited area and contribute some to the general damage. These big spectacular accidents are very regrettable, but they are criticized by the very people who turn on their outboard motors.

PLOWBOY: Sir, when we were outside, you gave me . . . a very enlightening answer that I think the rest of the group would benefit by. When I mentioned that the Japanese are harvesting clams and giant mussels, you mentioned that we're not going to need fish as such. Would you repeat the answer?

COUSTEAU: What you are asking me is to repeat what I said about imagination in farming. The only farming that exists today seriously is oysters, not only in Japan and Italy, but all over the world they are farmed very well in mass quantities – mussels, clams, everything. This is pretty well done. The problem now is pollution, because they are getting contaminated, but, otherwise, it works.

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