Fabien Cousteau's one-man shark sub for swimming with the fishes
By Peter Rojas 
posted March 21st 2005 10:42AM
posted March 21st 2005 10:42AM
Apparently he's going to waste this thing on legitimate scientific pursuits rather than scaring the crap out of
vacationers at the Jersey Shore this summer, but Fabien Cousteau (grandson of you-know-who) has built a 14-foot long,
1000-pound, one-man submarine that's designed to look exactly like a Great White Shark. The idea is to fool sharks into
thinking he's one of them so he can get right up close and see what they really do when their are no humans around
(we're guessing it's probably still eating fish).
[Thanks, Geir]
actually, great white sharks are not too much into fish. Mammals. Big, fat mammals.
Like sharks care whether humans are around. They probably don't even notice us unless we're thrashing or bleeding.
> we’re guessing it’s probably still eating fish
Well, as long as it isn't "take out the new guy". Cool idea, but I'd certainly try it with cameras first...besides, can you really see more while you're trying to steer that thing from inside of it?
-Chris
Does anyone really think that a shark will believe that this big clumsily-swimming thing that isn't busy terrorizing Richard Dreyfus is a shark? I think a shark can probably tell the difference between a shark and a submarine.
Oh come on, this was done already back in the 1960's ... don't you remember? http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/_images/db/9/36/tintinshow3.93606.full.jpg
Fabien Cousteau and I were business partners back in the mid 90's. This was one of our early prototypes.
http://www.thecostumer.com/store/product.cfm?prodID=3035
from what I've read about sharks, they have a very smell and hearing senses are very strong. I don't think that making something look like a shark is going to help very much.
Now, if you can make it swim like a shark, then that would be incredible. But I think that technology for that is several decades (or centuries) away.
Finally, the device marine biologists have been waiting for to study the mating habits of the elusive Great White...
ew. and/or, ouch.
Sharks have a highly developed sense of smell. So I'm going to go out on a limb and assume they use scent to detect/identify each other. This thing won't smell at all like a shark, but like a big chunk of plastic (with a tasty diver inside). They have some other senses - electrical I believe - that they may use between themselves, too. This gizmo may be a bit less intrusive than a standard mini-sub, and hopefully less appetizing than a diver, but I can't imagine anyone with half a brain believing the sharks will be fooled by this thing.
From the article: "in 1989 his father deployed a shark look-alike vehicle that was attacked by a large female Great White and completely destroyed. Fabien is undaunted; Troy, he points out, is an utterly different beast." Yeah. Look for a Darwin Award nomination real soon.
- Jasen.
P.S. We happened to be watching Wild Kingdom last night and they had some fool who stuffed herself in a plastic log contraption to get "amazingly" close to some lions snacking on a fresh kill. They used their Land Cruiser to push the log up next to the lions. So you have a truck 6 feet away from the lions, with this log-thingy putting the "researcher" nose-to-nose with the lions. The voice track was like, "Look how amazingly close Jane is to the lions. This is unprecedented close-up study of lions eating. Blah. Blah."
Anyway, I found it thoroughly ridiculous. This story just continues the trend.
"The idea has family precedent: in 1989 his father deployed a shark look-alike vehicle that was attacked by a large female Great White and completely destroyed."
The only natural predator that a great white has is another great white. I'd think twice about disguising myself as the one thing that a great white has reason to be scared of or mad at.
What about the frickin' laser beam?
Reminds me of the shark-submarine designed by Professor Calclus in the Tintin books...
http://remick.net/tintin/Covers.JPG/treasure.JPG
That is sooo weird because I am pretty sure this guy I work with is actualy a shark inside of a human-like tank. I'm going to forward this story on to him and see if he knows the jig is up!
[Knocks 3 times]
Candygram.
"Land shark. The cleverest species of them all."
Maybe you should read the french comic "Tintin", it will tell you just where he got the idea
#12, did you check out the link?
"When I was seven years old I read a Tintin story called ‘Rackham le Rouge,’ where he makes a sub in the shape of a shark and goes underwater. Since then I’ve always wanted to build a shark sub."
Dear morons, fools and imbeciles:
Why don't read the entire 3-page article before spewing drivel such as:
"...Does anyone really think that a shark will believe that this big clumsily-swimming thing that isn't busy terrorizing Richard Dreyfus is a shark?"
Idiots.
Now all I need is a yacht with an underwater launching platform, a short clone, and an evil laugh
-- world domination is mine....
Since he is the offspring of the great Jacques I have every confidence that he knows what he is doing. I just want to see the results!
I am a comment spammer: classictommy@yahoo.com
The shark idea reminds me of a TV show where his grandfather built a realistic hippopatomus head with a camera inside. The idea was to get close up views of them in the river. The hippos reponded by destroying the intruder!
Fabien's dad did free dives with sharks where he actually grabed the fin of sharks and let himself get draged through the water. I think Fabien knows exactly what he is doing and I can't wait to see it. He has a great sense of humor about it all, hoping that troy will be seen as a "retarded cousine from Australia" by the other sharks.
That is very much like him to say something like that. The man usually doesn't say much but when he does chances are it's either relevant and/or funny.
PS: killer whales have been found to have made a snack out of a smaller great white. overall the two tend to not get along too well, you never know which one of them will be dinner.