Obit of the Day

Obit of the Day: Cousteau’s Right Hand Man

Albert Falco learned to swim before he was 18 months old. So it makes sense that he would spent most of his adult life in the water, first as a deckhand, then chief diver, and finally captain ofCalypso, Jacques Cousteau’s famous exploration ship.

Falco, who joined Cousteau in 1952, would travel around the world on the Calypso fourteen different times. Over his thirty-three years with the great French ocean adventurer Falco would swim with sharks, explore American shipwrecks, measure for radiation leaks off the coast of France, and even live for one week in an undersea “home” - he hated that one.

After leaving Cousteau in 1990 (things became rocky amongst the crew after Cousteau divorced his first wife and began living with his mistress, with whom he already had two children…as well they might), Franco would continue to dive regularly and pushed the French government to create marine preserves to protect undersea life. On April 18, 2012, three days before his death at the age of 84, France established Parc National des Calanques, which protected 193 square miles of ocean near Franco’s childhood home.

(Image of Falco, left, and Jacques Cousteau, date unknown, is courtesy of lesmala.net)