I am Fabien Cousteau, the aquanaut who lived underwater for 31 days. AMA!

Do you think in our lifetime we will see a permanent settlement underwater? Not a base or research facility, but a place where the average person could live?

It is technically possible. Even more so than a colony on Mars… Hence why my grandfather experimented with this premise in the early 1960s with Conshelf habitats

How was your diet down there? What kind of food were you eating for that time?

Really Really AWFUL!!!!! We ate freeze dried “astronaut” food morning noon and eve… 3 times as many calories yet lost over 18lbs after 31 days

did you miss the stars? and how was your sleeping schedule... did night remain night?

I didn’t because the stars were everywhere on the sea floor.

Considering we dove 10-12 hours per day sleep was surprisingly not a problem. The Clayton Sleep Center was disappointed I’m sure ;-)

Could you take that shape of water guy in a fight? What would be your strategy against a man-fish?

Did you see me change into my aquaman suit?

I'll ask several questions, it'd be awesome if you could answer them all, if that's not the case, I'd be satisfied with getting one responded at least 😅

I. What's the rarest encounter that you've had with an animal?

II. What's something that should be common knowledge about the sea?

III. Which one's your favorite mythological underwater beast and why is that your choice?

P.s: You have an amazing life and it sounds like you enjoy what you do, that makes me happy for you 😄

I. Nose to nose with 2 orcas in PNG(Papua New Guinea) playing with and eventually feeding on a 7 foot shark.

II. The ocean is life. No blue no green. Without it we do not exist. If the ocean isn't healthy neither can we , neither can our economy… simple. … The ONLY thing that makes our planet special is the water on it

III. The kraken of course! Because the thought still scares the living cr-p out of people even today… LOL

P.s: TKU! I do. It's one of the most difficult jobs out there but the experiences are priceless and I cherish each moment!

What was the coolest thing and the hardest thing about living underwater? Would you do it again??

Coolest thing was the being given the luxury of time underwater by becoming an aquanaut. It is the biggest obstacle and limitation coming from the surface. We broke the time barrier! The reverse is true too- we had a ceiling from which we could not rise above. To do so would create major DCS issues including potential death...

I'm totally jealous, it had to be such an amazing experience! Were you ever afraid of the potential death factor? Metal groans in the middle of the night hard to get used to kind of thing... What kind of sea life did you get to see??

Anything worth doing has some risk. Explorers mitigate what they can, plan for any contingency and “go for it” knowing to expect the unexpected. Death is an inevitable part of life. Living life is what we must never avoid.

What's a common misconception about the ocean that annoys you?

Its indestructible and bottomless resources… it’s quite the opposite and we are finding out the hard way

Do you believe in sea monsters?

Yes- people underwater qualify

When people say the majority of the earth’s oceans are unexplored, what does this actually mean and do you think there are as to yet undiscovered creatures that will shock and amaze the world? I’m thinking dinosaur level here.

Less than 5% of our ocean world has been explored to date. Perspective: the ocean represents over 99% of our planet’s living space, some 3.4BILLION cu2 of volume… even if you take the entire scuba diving layer into account as well as all the bottom exploration in modern history including my grandfather’s pioneering exploits, thats >5%

Have you seen the floating patches of trash while out at sea?

Yes- in every ocean. There is an average of 34,000 pieces of plastic per square mile of ocean… A testament to our complete disconnect with the impact we are having on our ocean

Hi, what’s the hardest thing about conveying your experience under or at the sea via film? Thanks! You have the most incredible job.

Ocean is such an alien world, alien concept, alien sensory input, that conveying to someone who hasn’t pierced the blue veneer the beauty, fragility and importance of our life support system is very difficult. It’s like trying to explain the properties of a super nova to someone who never took astronomy

What is your favourite memory of your grandfather?

Away from the cameras, the crowds, the events… when we spent time alone as a family or on expedition. Taking time over lunch in the carre of Calypso during lunch to have a laugh and chat about philosophy or non expedition related topics

While you were underwater, what where your experiences with Noise Pollution; how does your research intersects with Noise Pollution?

Boat noise, machinery noise, living in a sort of echo chamber makes these things even more evident. Imagine what that does to sea life, especially those animals much more sensitive to noise than we are, such as cetaceans ...

AS an avid scuba diver myself, I used to love just sitting on a patch of sand at 80-100 feet and just watch quietly the reef for an hour. I imagine living underwater that long you had quite a bit of this enjoyment?

Its home. I imagine you might feel the same. Sitting at the bottom watching the soap opera unfold in front of you is such a joy every time. Always different, always new characters, always surprising and wonderous.

Please tell me you got your career inspiration from my favorite childhood movie

Edit: ah, I see you are Jacques Cousteau's grandson! Cool! Yeah, that probably had more to do with it than the movie...

Life Aquatic was cool too ;-)

What did you think of the movie 'The Life Aquatic'?

Interesting, curious, twisted, love Bill, funny, off kilter… cult. Honor Wes Anderson thought of my family. Wish we had worked with him on it

What kind of equipment did you live/travel in during project 31? How long did descent/ascent take at the beginning/end?

Watch the Mission 31 videos and all will be revealed: https://www.youtube.com/user/Mission31channel

What does undergoing decompression feel like?

A lot of waiting… in the case of M31 it was 24 hours of it...

Did your sleep patterns remain the same while living underwater? I've heard that people devoid of normal stimuli will eventually settle into a different pattern than most of us are used to.

Also - what's it sound like down there?!

Sleep? What sleep? (See above)... Mission 31 was run just like any extreme environment mission ie NASA… Military training and preparation and precise schedule are essential for everything to work. We had sleep schedules so we could keep up the grueling pace.

Sound- it’s not the silent world at all! Between the echo of machinery, the snapping shrimp on the hull, the booming and clicking of fish and other sea life, it was a cacophony of underwater symphonies

Hi there! I’m finishing up my undergrad degree in oceanography, hoping to forge my way into a graduate position doing trace metal ocean chemistry in the near future. I’m also an AAUS diver hoping to dive in every ocean at some point.

How widespread are the effects of human pollution that you have actually seen first hand on the ocean? Do you think humanity has a chance of cleaning up the damage we have already done?

Also, what’s the smartest animal you e encountered while in the ocean?

It is a very depressing topic and one I think deserves a lot more attention, but not on this thread…

If I had no hope, I would not be doing what I do 24/7. Hope is essential for change. Change is essential for us to fathom giving back to our children what we’ve borrowed from their future.

The octopus

What was the biggest surprise inconvenience that you didn't expect, when spending SO much time underwater?

People- ie visits from surface dwellers. Funny how one gets used to and defensive of home. We started getting bothered by the drop ins even if they were for our benefit.

What was the set up in order to accomplish that?

Top secret and extremely difficult. Think NASA training and living in the Space Station… just underwater...

I grew up watching and adoring your grandfather. I know he invented the SCUBA system, were there any other inventions?

Thank you! He and Emile Gagnan (his engineer friend from Air Liquide) co-invented the aqualung(SCUBA). My grandfather also had to invent the tools necessary to explore since none were available: underwater camera housings, the first underwater habitat, the first submersible for science research, helped develop modern side scan sonar, underwater lights, and more… It was by necessity that he did this.

What's the first thing you eat when you get back on land? I always crave Mexican food when I dive or surf for some reason...

We all wanted a good fresh organic burger and fries… was very disappointed as I still couldn't taste much that day

Did being underwater for that long take a toll on your body? Did you notice yourself more reactive to sunlight afterwards?

Reactive to sunlight not so much. We had full spectrum light in the habitat which helped… I lost weight despite the additional calories. Lost sense of taste during and a few days after. Air was thicker to breath down below so coming back up seemed like air was thin. Took time to get back to normal sleep patterns and food. I personally didn't see any permanent effects so far except for wanting to go back ;-)

What is the best way for someone to make a career out of ocean conservation? Is it something you need to get into from the beginning or is it possible to transition mid career?

Although there are opportunities, it is still a difficult journey due to our continued neglect of the value our ocean brings. Hybrid carriers are often innovative, solution focussed, and you can make a living at it ;-) . We can always use more marine experts and conservationists, just giving you the heads up.

Describe your aquanaut suit. How was it? How did allow you to brush your teeth, eat, drink, sleep, and expel feces? You know, everyday stuff.

An aquanaut suit is no different than commercial or scuba depending on needs of the task at hand… Once done with the particular dive, you take the suits and helmets or full face masks etc, take a shower, and put on team clothes ie tshirt shorts etc… it's like coming home after work, just in a habitat 20 meters under water. The Mission 31 videos on YouTube can best illustrate this

Hey there! If you had to recommend two books [one fiction; one nonfiction] that you love, or had some impact on your life, what would they be and why?

Also, what did you do to keep from getting bored down there?

Jules Vernes- 20000 leagues under the sea

Erik Seedhouse- Ocean Outpost

Never had a chance to get bored… its the sea after all! 10-12 hours of diving and research, 1-3 hours of interviews and SITC a day, dry lab research, managing a aquanaut team as well as a film team …. No boredom here… no sleep either

First of all, I must say I am incredibly jealous. I am enamored with undersea life, aquanautics, and the unknown, and it would be my dream to do what you get to do.

My question is, after spending a long period of time underwater, are there any roadblocks now to increase that number to a longer period of time. If so, what are they? If not, when can we see a mission for a longer period of time?

Yes, human physiology, human psychological limits, accidents, economic, technology, supplies, support, etc are just a few of the obstacles. I believe it is possible depending on addressing those and other issues...

Have you ever read the Rifters trilogy by Peter Watts?

Unfortunately not. I’ll add it to the pile of over 135 books I’ve accumulated and promised myself I’d read ;-)

A lot of my questions have been answered, did you wear a dive watch? Which kind? What piece of equipment do you think people here would find interesting?

I always wear a mechanical dive watch. In this case for saturation diving it was my go to since most computers aren't build for saturation diving, much less long stays… Lots of interesting tech- The PAM (pulse amplitude modulated florometer) was an interesting piece of kit (see youtube video) as well as the Ditson hand held acoustic imaging device.

What is the status on the rebuild of the Calypso?

Sadly none as far as I know, but the original Cousteau family is not in control of this

I just went on a whale watch in Maui yesterday and learned that there had never been a whale birth witnessed. My thought was that there should be some sort of vehicle that could follow and film whales while not invading or changing their patterns...interested?

A small correction- people have witnessed a whale giving birth in captivity but that is not quite the same since she was artificially inseminated and jailed her entire life

Imagine a drone following you your whole life until you gave birth … How efficient or plausible is that?

did anything feel different or alien to you after coming back to the surface?

My sinuses seem to feel a little different. I also think I grew gills behind my ears (joke)

What was the scariest moment of your underwater life?

When I encounter man...

What’s your favorite aquatic animal?

The octopus!

What was the most memorable moment for you?

What was the coolest experience you had while underwater?

Would you do it again?

Looking into a child’s eyes and seeing the wonder and curiosity sparked by the story I shared of the ocean

So many it would be difficult to choose. The orca story (above) is one of my favorite growing up

Yes, Without a second of hesitation… If you have the funding ;-)

You didn't sleep for 31 days? In your comments it makes it seem so.

We slept as much as we could, but not nearly enough. Since this was such an epic once in a lifetime opportunity at Aquarius we wanted to maximize the opportunity. After all, we were to return to soft beds and comfy surface life after 31 days so sleep was last on our minds during ...

Why not just call yourself a "submariner" like normal people? Why do you have to be so pretentious with "aquanaut?"

Submariners and aquanauts are very different. One lives in a vehicle at one ATM segregated from the environment and one lives saturated and wanders free into the environment. Aquanaut is an official term for this.