Jean-Michel Cousteau to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

Renowned ocean explorer and diver Jean-Michel Cousteau will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara on November 11 as part of a weekend of festivities that benefit Cousteau’s nonprofit organization Ocean Futures Society (OFS). The event, titled the 78 Years of Diving & Discovery Gala, starts Friday, November 10 and goes through Sunday, November 12. OFS was created in 1999 as a voice of the ocean, and has since provided educational programs and diplomatic support for causes worldwide. 

In that realm of support by OFS, the Santa Barbara Channel has been named the ninth global Whale Heritage Area by the World Cetacean Alliance. The award is based on: 

“…The region’s commitment to promoting responsible ecotourism, providing more ocean educational opportunities, supporting on-going research, conservation efforts, honoring the timeless cultural connection people have to whales, and raising awareness about the importance of whales, dolphins, and porpoises and their role in enhancing ocean productivity and their climate connection in sequestering carbon.”

The Ritz-Carlton Bacara’s OFS weekend events are all with Cousteau there to meet and greet with attendees. Friday, November 10, is a reception and a Celebration of Whales art exhibit. Saturday, November 11, includes an ecological hike and an evening dinner and dancing gala with a multimedia presentation of never previously released films. Sunday is an ocean discovery cruise on the Condor Express, the vessel I am informed has been donated to OFS by its owner Hiroko Benko, a longtime friend of Cousteau’s with her husband, Fred. There are sponsorship opportunities to support OFS in addition to attending the weekend events.

Cousteau has partnered with the Ritz-Carlton brand over the years with his Ambassadors of the Environment programs for families. Their Lifetime Achievement Award for him encompasses his work as an explorer, diplomat, environmentalist, educator, author, and film producer to protect our planet’s water ecosystems, and to support OFS. 

I met with Cousteau, whom I’ve known for 20 years through photography, even employing my student Carrie Vonderhaar while I was faculty at the Brooks Institute of Photography. We caught up on all this and more with his life partner Nan Marr. 

His answers to all my interview questions came down to his lifelong ethical codes about our ocean environmental as vital to our health and survival and to that of our planet. In order to capture the highlights of our interview, I filmed his most important statements about his projects, OFS, Ambassadors of the Environment, and collab with the Ritz-Carlton brand. These live HD videos will be on theMontecito Journal website and YouTube Channel: www.montecitojournal.net

411: www.oceanfutures.org
www.oceanfutures.org/news/press-releases/diving-discovery-gala