Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

Article by Anna Robert

Jean-Michel, the 75-year old son of the famous explorer Jacques Cousteau also devoted his life to studies of marine life. His Secret Ocean is a truly impressive documentary for many reasons. First, the images themselves – new filming tools allowed underwater shoots in 3D, ultra-HD 4K, slow motion, close up, macro, and motion control (isn’t it amazing that the zoom of a camera now allows us to peek in a mouth of a tiny fish?) Secondly, the very quality of the underwater photography – just unbelievable that they can capture images as deep as 85 feet, project them on the 76-foot dome theatre screen of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and plunge us into fascinating colorful underwater environments. Thirdly, we get to learn some bits of information about the plankton process and the weirdness of the basket star from Jean-Michel himself and from renowned oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle who narrate in a rather humorous way. And another great feature of the documentary is its soundtrack – yes, it extremely entertaining to see the sea cucumber “dancing” to the rhythms of classical music.

The documentary was filmed in the Bahamas, Fiji, and the Caribbean. It introduces us to more than 30 sea species whose behaviors have never been captured on video before. The attention of the producers was drawn primarily to smaller organisms like lion fish, anemones, cold water sea hare, and gobies. Before the premiere of the documentary in San Diego on June 30, the audience got to see and hear Jean-Michel Cousteau in real time… over Skype. In his introduction he actually explained that while typically the focus is on big marine animals such as sharks and whales, with this documentary he wanted to get people to understand and see that it is the bottom of the food chain, these tiny creatures, on which everything else in the ocean depends. It was very exciting to hear Cousteau who has been devoting his life to the ocean since he was seven years old when (his own words) his father pushed him in the water with the scuba diving equipment. He is passionate and emotional about everything related to the marine life and its protection and his feelings are contagious … especially after you watch this documentary!

For show times and film information, please visit http://www.rhfleet.org/.