The grandson of famous oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau believes the best way to learn about sharks is to become one.
http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782 ... story_top5
Fabien Cousteau, inspired as a child by the comic book Red Rackham's Treasure, where the main character, Tintin, adventures underwater in a shark-shaped submarine, decided as an adult to build his own.
"It's the same thought process as Jane Goodall or Diane Fossey. You don't want to separate yourself from the animal. You want to be part of the animal's realm," Cousteau said.
Cousteau enlisted the services of renowned Hollywood design engineer and animatronics expert Eddie Paul to build a great white submarine.
"It's extremely innovative" said Cousteau. "It's a 1,200-pound tool that looks, feels and moves like a great white shark."
Paul has a history with the Cousteaus. Back in 1989, he was commissioned to build a robotic shark for Jean-Michel (Fabien's father) and Jacques. The robotic shark "Allison" was tethered to a shark cage and contained a hidden camera to better observe the sharks in action.
On the last day of shooting, the shark was made to list to one side and move erratically as though it were injured, causing the alpha female great white to "decide to end the poor robot shark's tortured life by taking a death blow to its gills, crushing it into a million pieces," said Fabien Cousteau with a mock sigh.
The biggest technical hurdle Paul and Cousteau faced with the submarine was to make it move like a great white with no engine noise or bubbles. They came up with an efficient, closed-circuit pneumatic system that pushes air through a 120-cubic-foot cylinder. High-pressure air is pushed through a control stick that determines the left, right and forward movement of the submarine. This in turn fuels two pistons that move the tail or aft section of the sub back-and-forth in a fluid motion, mimicking the movement of a shark.
Since it's a closed-circuit system, there are no bubbles. Cousteau said the sub is also calibrated to move at the cruising speed of a great white.
The frame of the 14-foot shark is comprised of 2-inch-thick stainless steel ribs covered by Skin Flex, an elastic material used for prostheses and in animatronics. Paul mixed this with polymers to give the sub the rougher texture of shark skin and to break up the light for a more realistic matte surface.
The sub, nicknamed "Troy," has three cameras, including one cleverly hidden above the shark head in a fake remora, or suckerfish, that looks like the ones that commonly attach themselves to great whites. The aft camera is hidden below the two rear ventricle fins. The third camera records Cousteau's behavior inside the sub. Small, waterproof monitors and control mechanisms for the cameras and navigation are located inside the shark's head, where Cousteau can control them.
Cousteau is not entirely alone in the sub. Above him, his production team, aboard a converted fishing trawler, keeps in contact wirelessly.
"This didn't work quite as well as we hoped," said Cousteau with a chuckle. "They lost me and I lost them quite a few times." However, if the sub goes kablooey, Cousteau can eject through an escape hatch in the shark's head.
Cousteau took off to Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Baja Mexico, late last year in one of several expeditions to film sharks. He immediately noticed differences in how they reacted to his sub.
"They approached me with caution in a way quite different from the typical footage seen in documentaries where the great white lunges toward the diver in the cage," he said.
Since Troy cannot respond in a sophisticated, sharklike manner, Cousteau decided that while the great whites do buy that he's a shark, they consider him more like a "retarded cousin from Australia."
Cousteau is busy corralling 170 hours of footage into a two-hour TV documentary with the working title, Mind of a Demon.
"It's all about battling the mindless killing machine imagery," said Cousteau, who wants viewers to understand that a great white is just an animal perfectly adapted to its environment.
"The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see their near and dear bathed in tears, to ride their horses and sleep on the white bellies of their wives and daughters."
-Genghis Khan
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
