Doug Allan

The cook tells her he's trained it to come to the moon pool for food.

When they wander over, it's already there waiting for them.

They drop a few scraps into the water and watch it snap them up.

Simone laughs.

Calling through to the men, she asks them to send a message up to the Rosaldo that she'll stay the night in one of the visitor births.

After all, why would she choose the surface over this magical underwater paradise?

With footage taken from his extraordinary habitats, Cousteau makes a documentary called World Without Sun.

It airs just before Christmas in 1964 and wins him his second Oscar.

By now, the oil companies are eager to learn how much deeper humans can live.

So a year later, Corn Shelf 3 is launched.

A spherical structure over 300 feet deep, it is anchored just off the coast of France.

Though the six men have comfortable lodgings, they are breathing a mixture 98% helium and 2% oxygen, which affects their voices to such a degree that conversation is rendered almost impossible.

Their senses of taste and smell are also dulled.

Though the experiment provides valuable insights into deep-sea living, it is costly and complex.

In April 1966, CBS airs a one-hour TV special on Corn Shelf 3, which is narrated by the film star Orson Welles.

But a producer on the documentary decides there's more mileage in Cousteau's adventures, and not long after, ABC Television acquires the first series of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau for $4.2 million.

The first episode, Sharks, premieres in 1968 and features footage of one of Cousteau's divers riding a 60-foot whale shark.

Though the series is a hit, Captain Cousteau and his crew of gung-ho adventurers sometimes take things a little too far.

The popular television show runs for eight years, ending in 1976, by which time the tall, thin Frenchman in his trademark knitted red hat, together with his plucky crew, is known all over the world.

In the late 60s and early 70s, Cousteau and his divers begin to notice a deterioration in the world's oceans.