Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Fabien Cousteau: 100 Million Sharks Killed Per Year




Fabien Cousteau

100 Million Sharks Killed Per Year

11,417 Sharks Killed Per Hour

If you are a regular reader of Jake's Rolex World you know I tend to maintain a pretty positive outlook. In other words I tend to celebrate great things and people. I am a big fan of everything having to do with the life aquatic including Jacques Couteau, and I follow Fabien Cousteau on Instagram





Fabien is one of Jacques-Yves Cousteau's grandsons and he is a highly accomplished Aquanaut, Filmmaker, Ocean Explorer and Environmental Advocate. In the photo above we see young Fabien Cousteau with his legendary Grandfather, Jacque-Yves Cousteau.

A few days ago Fabien posted the following post on Instagram and it took my breath away! Not in a good way, but in a terrible way :-(





So why am I sharing this extremely disturbing Instagram post with you? To make you think, and I believe people need to be aware of how quickly humans are decimating the oceans.

The letter in the Instagram post above was written by Fabien's eight-year-old daughter 'Dylan,' who is in 2nd grade, to President Trumpand it points out that humans are killing 100 million sharks per year, which works out to 11,417 sharks per hour. If you break this down even further it works out to 190 sharks killed every minute, or more than 3 per second—every second of every day. So if you just read to this part in the post, more sharks have been killed than have killed humans in a year.

So who is killing all these sharks? I don't know and it is hard to imagine. I am aware that Shark Fin soup is very popular in China. According to Wikipedia:

"Shark fins are believed in Chinese culture to have properties of boosting sexual potency, enhancing skin quality, increasing qi or energy, preventing heart disease, and lowering cholesterol. There are claims that shark fins prevent cancer; however, there is no scientific evidence, and one study found shark cartilage generally to be of no value in cancer treatment."

When fisherman hunt sharks, they cut off the sharks fin and throw the shark back in the water, and of course, the shark suffers a terrible death. I would post pictures of sharks that have had their fins cut off but it is way too disturbing and gross to look at. I don't know what the solution is to this, but I believe if enough people learn about these facts, we as a society can take action to stop this barbaric behavior.

I deeply encourage the Chinese government to seriously consider outlawing the hunting and killing of sharks, and seriously reconsider their relationship with nature. I think this is especially poignant at this character-defining moment in history with the development and spreading of the Coronavirus in China.






Cousteau Legacy

In the famous family portrait below we see Jacques-Yves with his two sons, Philippe and Jean-Michel Cousteau (far right). Jean-Michel is Fabien's father. I recently interviewed Jean-Michel and he was AMAZING!!!



Jean-Michel Cousteau is in the photo below that was inspired by the family portrait above, with his children Fabien and Céline Cousteau. 




Jean-Michel Cousteau is pictured below from a TV documentary SCUBA Diving with his daughter Céline and son Fabien Cousteau.



In the photo below taken by Fabien's mother, Ann-Marie Cousteau, we see young Fabien on the right with his grandfather, Jacques-Yves and his sister Céline Cousteau.




In this next photo we see Jean-Michel Cousteau with his daughter Céline and son Fabien Cousteau.



In the video below we see Jean-Michel Cousteau with leading marine biologist, Dr. Sylvia Earle. Dr. Earle is also an avid explorer, author, and lecturer. She has been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence since 1998. If you are not familiar with Dr. Sylvia Earle, you should check out her recent documentary titled Mission Blue, which can be seen on Netflix. Also you can visit Sylvia Eearle's Mission-Blue.Org to learn more about her superb mission.




In the photo below we see Fabien Cousteau with Dr. Sylvia Earle who is a leading marine biologist as well as being a world renowned Rolex brand ambassador. I would say Sylvia Earle is almost like a female version of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.



"Taking care of our planet is not about sacrifice but investment in our future." 

—Fabien Cousteau

Below is a Ted Talk Fabien Cousteau gave which is amazing!!!