Filmmaking royalty visited the Vancouver Aquarium yesterday when Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of legendary documentarian and oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, showed footage from her travels documenting water crises.
Her Expedition Blue Planet Tour is a 138-day sojourn across North America to engage the public on water issues in those regions.
“My own commitment to water conservation started very early,” Cousteau said. “My grandfather taught me to scuba dive when I was seven.”
Last year, Cousteau joined National Geographic for a five-continent tour to look at what she called the “interconnectivity” of water.
“In the Cousteau tradition of storytelling and film-making, I want to create conversation starters,” she said.
In the South, for example, runoff from pesticides used in the Midwest has travelled the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, killing sea life there.
Some Vancouverites, she added, take their water for granted.
“Figure out what watershed you live in, which is where your impact begins, and you’ll see how your footprint gets into the sea,” she said.
