The Calypso visit Corsica and spend time with a man with an insanely dangerous job. He's a coral diver and dives to extreme depths (300+ feet) and spends a lot of time on the bottom...and some of his equipment is clearly improvised. Instead of using a weight belt, he uses rocks and instead of pressurizing his tanks to 3000 psi (the recommended max), he pressurizes them to over 4000 psi (almost like strapping bombs to his back)!! Clearly this guy is living on the edge and the show did say that the various accidents he had caused some problems with his body.
Additionally, the crew does some work with the man...taking him down in a mini sub as well as doing some deep dives with him. Seeing them diving into darkness and knowing the man is NOT using a special air mix or a submerged decompression chamber for coral diving is nuts! Ironically, while he was apparently fine during this dive, in an earlier dive one of the Calypso crew members had a terrible dive accident and could well have died...and he was being very safety conscious.
All in all, this is an excellent episode for scuba divers to watch, as they can observe all the techniques they are NEVER supposed to use! Since I am an experienced diver, I was simply amazed that this Corsican was seemingly indestructible!!! I know I'd never take any of these chances. I was also VERY surprised that the show never talked about the destruction of coral reefs and seemed to take a rather passive attitude about coral harvesting. Times sure have changed!! In fact, some narration at the end was LATER added which DID talk about coral protection. You can tell because this show was made in 1975 and Cousteau talks about a meeting held in 1989 about the harvesting of coral. You also learn through this same added narration that the coral diver has since died--not a victim of a diving accident but was killed in some argument!
Additionally, the crew does some work with the man...taking him down in a mini sub as well as doing some deep dives with him. Seeing them diving into darkness and knowing the man is NOT using a special air mix or a submerged decompression chamber for coral diving is nuts! Ironically, while he was apparently fine during this dive, in an earlier dive one of the Calypso crew members had a terrible dive accident and could well have died...and he was being very safety conscious.
All in all, this is an excellent episode for scuba divers to watch, as they can observe all the techniques they are NEVER supposed to use! Since I am an experienced diver, I was simply amazed that this Corsican was seemingly indestructible!!! I know I'd never take any of these chances. I was also VERY surprised that the show never talked about the destruction of coral reefs and seemed to take a rather passive attitude about coral harvesting. Times sure have changed!! In fact, some narration at the end was LATER added which DID talk about coral protection. You can tell because this show was made in 1975 and Cousteau talks about a meeting held in 1989 about the harvesting of coral. You also learn through this same added narration that the coral diver has since died--not a victim of a diving accident but was killed in some argument!
