My Father, the Captain My Life With Jacques Cousteau

Such a gift he has given to me! Such an inheritance! ... I notice an unusual opening in the kelp. All around there is this dense and marvelous kelp forest, which appears to collect around a silky, sandy bottom. The way it appears before me, at just that moment, is almost otherworldly. The sun's rays are shining brightly through the kelp, lighting up this little, inexplicable patch of sand-like a spotlight on an empty stage. All around me there are tiny garibaldi, brightly colored damselfish native to the area. In normal light, they're a fantastic, shimmering orange, but here, in this bright sunlight, they are like festive candles, a string of party decorations announcing some underwater fiesta.

JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU is the founder and president of the Ocean Futures Society (www.oceanfutures.org). He is the recipient of many awards, including Emmys, a Peabody, a 7 d'Or, and the Cable ACE Award, and has produced more than 80 films. Cousteau is the executive producer of the PBS television series Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures.
DANIEL PAISNER is one of the busiest collaborators in publishing, serving as co-author of many New York Times bestsellers including Denzel Washington's A Hand to Guide Me, Whoopi Gold-berg's Book, and FDNY Battalion Commander Richard Picciotto's September 11 memoir, Last Man Down.