"We can't protect what we don"t understand." -Jean-Michel Cousteau A generation ago, Jacques-Yves Cousteau revealed the oceans' mysteries to millions of landlocked PBS television viewers, and inspired a groundswell of public awareness of the unique problems faced by the world's marine environments. Now, 30 years later, Jacques' son Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team of 'oceanauts' have set sail to explore dangerous and spectacular locales across the globe in JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU: OCEAN ADVENTURES, a multi-part HDTV series premiering on PBS in April with the film "Voyage to Kure," narrated by Pierce Brosnan. Produced by KQED Public Broadcasting and Ocean Futures Society, "Voyage to Kure" will air nationally in prime-time on PBS for two consecutive Wednesdays in April, on Wednesday April 5 at 8pm and on Wednesday April 12 at 8pm (each episode is 60 minutes). Check local listings. In this pioneering exploration, the Cousteau team sets sail to the Northwest Hawaiian Island archipelago, the most remote island group in the world. There, they discover diverse wildlife populations above and below the sea and investigate these species' fight against extinction and the devastating effects of pollution, mining, fishing and development. Using state-of-the-art technology and accompanied by marine scientists and ecologists, Peabody and Emmy Award-winning Jean-Michel Cousteau and his acclaimed diving teams will explore a thrilling array of natural phenomena, investigate little known territories and ecosystems hundreds of feet beneath the ocean's surface, and come face to face with the friendly and ferocious inhabitants of the deep in each episode of OCEAN ADVENTURES. Through Jean-Michel's observations, the series will illuminate the great need for better understanding and sustainable management of the oceans' rich natural treasures. "We know more about the 'dead seas' of Mars than our own ocean," said Jean-Michel Cousteau. "In this series, we are charting a course of human adventure and discovery of our real life support system- our planet's ocean." "PBS' commitment to quality marine science and ecology programming was inspired by the prescient explorations of Jacques Cousteau," said John Wilson, Sr. Vice President, PBS Programming. "Now our viewers will be able to take the next, great journey into this realm with his son, Jean-Michael, and this unprecedented series." "KQED is very pleased to bring Jean-Michel Cousteau back to public television with this 21st century ocean adventure series," said John Boland, KQED's Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer. "The dive team includes some old hands along with new, younger crew members, all equipped with the latest technology to take us on an adventure of discovery that dives deeper, stays down longer, and explores realms rarely if ever viewed by television audiences in the past." The OCEAN ADVENTURES educational outreach campaign will provide engaging educational materials and professional development trainings for educators in both formal and informal settings. The campaign will focus on enhancing the series' themes of ecosystem stability and sustainable management of the oceans' resources by emphasizing the interconnectedness of organisms and the dependence of all life on aquatic environments. At www.pbs.org/oceanadventures, users can go on their own ocean adventures, exploring various creatures and ecosystems in an online ocean. Along the way they will pick up facts and figures about sea creatures large and small; get to know the diving teams from each expedition; stream video previews; view additional underwater footage; and get to know our wet world in a whole new way. Additional programs in the first season of OCEAN ADVENTURES are: * "The Gray Whale Obstacle Course" (1 @ 60 minutes). The Cousteau team follows gray whales, unchanged for 600,000 years and under constant threat of extinction, from the nursery lagoons of Baja California north to frigid feeding grounds in the Bering Sea-through the longest and most polluted migration routes of any whale species. * "Sharks: At Risk" (1 @ 60 minutes). Long feared as an object of terror, sharks are gaining a new reputation due to unprecedented observation - yet their numbers are quickly dwindling due to the actions of humans. To better understand shark behavior and the impact their reputation has had on their survival, the Cousteau team observes gray sharks in French Polynesia and great white sharks in South African - unprotected by a shark cage. * "America's Underwater Treasures" (2 @ 60 minutes - Part I and Part II). This two-part installment will bring viewers to the rarely visited underwater parks that constitute the National Marine Sanctuary System - a diverse and uniquely American group of ecosystems which promises to inspire an ethic of ocean preservation that will translate far beyond any national borders. Explorer, environmentalist, educator and film producer--for more than four decades Jean-Michel Cousteau has searched the world to document the pristine and perilous places of the ocean. Son of renowned ocean pioneer Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel grew up aboard the Calypso and Alcyone. As the founder and president of Ocean Futures Society, he travels the globe meeting with world leaders, businesses, educators and children as a "voice for the ocean" and our planet's most significant ambassador of the water environment.
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