Cousteau's documentary of Cozumel

[El Graduado]

Scubaboard seems to have some pretty informed members, so I thought I’d ask if anyone out there can help me. For years, there has been an urban myth circulating that claims Jacques Yves Cousteau “put Cozumel on the map” by “filming a documentary on Palancar reef.” The legend says it was shot in 1945, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, or 1962, depending on which website, guidebook, or newspaper article you choose to believe. Below are some of the many, many examples:

cozumelfest.com… In 1945, one year after the Cozumel airport inauguration, the oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau visited Cozumel island for the first time.

thecruisinginsider.com… In 1956, world famous scuba diver Jacques Cousteau put Cozumel "on the map," so to speak, when he began to share with the world the infinite beauty of this…

www.lepetitjournal.com… En 1958, le commandant Cousteau avait déclaré que Cozumel était l'un des meilleurs sites de plongée au monde.

disneycruise.disney… A boom in visitors to the island came after 1959, when the famed Jacques Cousteau publicized Cozumel's coral reefs as among the best in the world for scuba...

worldatlas.com… Jacques Cousteau, the French explorer came to Cozumel in 1960, and discovered the beauty of Palancar Reef…

scuba-diving-cozumel.com… In 1961, the famous oceanographer Jacques Yves Cousteau came to Cozumel with his crew on the Calypso to film a documentary.

cozumel.guru… In 1962 the French explorer Jacques Yves Cousteau visited Cozumel and proclaimed it to be one...

sportdiver.com… Since Jacques Cousteau launched Cozumel onto the scuba scene in the early 1960s…

Although I have searched high and low, I can find no record or copy of any such documentary.

If anybody out there has SOLID information about the name and airing date of a JYC documentary televised BEFORE 1965 that has any scenes or mention of Palancar Reef in Cozumel, I would really appreciate hearing about it.

 

[TV Mark]

Found this PDF on the net. http://www.everythingcozumel.com/history/Cousteaudocumentary.pdf

 

[El Graduado]

Thanks, TV Mark

That PDF is an article I wrote a couple of years ago. I also added my two-cents worth on the Wikipedia page about Cozumel that originally stated that JYC put the island on the map via his 1961 documentary. Since I posted that wiki correction, over 30 websites have copied it; but that is an insignificant number when compared to the websites that still push the old saw about a JYC documentary being the way the world first heard about Cozumel.

 

[mstevens]

I LOL'd when I saw the link from El Graduado (Ric Hajovsky)'s own site!

It seems possible that "Jacques Cousteau" is the only diver most people have ever heard of and that tacking his name onto anything to do with reefs lends a degree of truthiness.

I think Ric Hajovsky is probably the primary authority on Cozumel history. If he can't come up with something I think it's reasonable to presume it doesn't exist. Here's hoping he's mistaken, because I'd love to see such a thing if it existed.

 

[DjDiverDan]

Wasn't Jacque Cousteau's son in Cozumel last December for the ScubaFest 2013. I read that he was to give a talk at the Museum as part of ScubaFest. Did anybody go? What did Cousteau's son have to say?

 

[El Graduado]

Jean Michael Cousteau came to Cozumel, dedicated Laura Hoyo’s bronze bust of his father, gave a talk, collected his fee, and left. I did not go to see his talk or the bust dedication, but I'm sure he did not touch on Cozumel's history, as the Cousteau's were not a part of it as far as I can tell and I doubt if they are interested in it.

A couple of years ago, I was invited to the organizational meeting for the first Scubafest because they were unsure about the date that they were going to use in its original name (Scubafest: The 1956 Route of Jacques Yves Cousteau) and they figured I would know. When I explained that JYC did not come to the island in 1956 and that they were confusing his 1956 film “Le Monde du Silence” with Rene Cardona’s 1956 film “Un Mundo Nuevo” that WAS filmed here in 1956, they changed the name to “Scubafest: Homage to Jacques Yves Cousteau.” However, they kept repeating the same misinformation regarding his mythical 1956 visit to Cozumel on their website. This year, Rodrigo Navarro, who is a part of the Scubafest board (and Laura’s husband), wrote an online article stating JYC first came to the island in 1945. Clearly, that is not true; Cousteau was still in France in the French Navy at war’s end in 1945 and then he was put to work clearing French harbors of mines and dud ammunition for the next full year. Besides that, the statement that the Cozumel airport had been inaugurated a year earlier, in 1944, is also false. Many people have been misled to believe that the American Sea Bees, Air Force, Army, or Navy (choose your pick from the various websites) built the Cozumel airport during WWII. Not true. It was first built in 1929 and simply improved over the years. The 1943 improvements were done by Mexicana Constructora Azteca, S. A. under the direction of Mexican de Aviacion.

The Cozumel Scubafest committee has chosen to associate itself and the festival very closely with Jean Michael Cousteau, for obvious reasons. That is not the problem. The problem comes when they try to rewrite our history to ride on his coat tails.

 

[cvchief]

I heard from someone who dove 'near' him on that whole deal that he didn't let the grass grow and was outta there in a hurry.

 

[sharky60]

Wow, really?

this really bothers you doesn't it?

If JM just flew in, made a speech, collected his fee (by the way being Jean-Michael Cousteau IS his job, so yes, he gets paid for appearances), and flew out. How come I saw photos of him diving while he was there?

my final to pesos: NOT discrediting any of the people that proceeded him at all, but, it seems to me that the person who was world famous had the ability to spread the word about Cozumel's diving more than people that most people have never heard of. Sure, he may have never come here if it wasn't for them, and probably came here because of them for that matter, but he had the world clout to spread the word. pretty simple...name recognition.

"Word of mouth" is what really put the island 'on the map as a dive destination', which is what the statement should be, not just "on the map". The person who put it "on the map" was the first person to literally draw it on a map.

 

[mstevens]

Unfortunately, Sharky60, I can't actually figure out what you're saying.

Who is or was "the person who was world famous" who "had the ability to spread the word about Cozumel's diving"?

If we're talking about Jean-Michel Cousteau, then I don't think he really "had the world clout to spread the word". The only reason I even heard he'd been on the island is that I try to follow island events closely and saw the event mentioned on an island website. In other words, Cozumel alerted me to Jean-Michel Cousteau's presence, not the other way around.

 

[driftwood]

I think someone I know was on the expedition to Coz with Cousteau. Ron was talking about diving Coz and having to bring their own compressors. I know that he was on the Calypso at Blue Hole when they parked for a photo shoot. Next time I see him I will ask about it.