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A Cousteau Mystery? (1980s, Djibouti: Shark Cage Destroyed By Unknown Animal)

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Anonymous

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A few days ago, I came upon this story on a french website (http://come.to/oceano), about a supposed Cousteau mystery.

Link is long dead. See post below for current access to the content cited here.

The affair apparently started on June 26 1985. (there's a mistake on the dates on the website?) Stephane Swirog gives the information as relayed by one of his military colleague.
It was an apparent discovery/experiment by JY Cousteau near Djibouti, near some islands of the Tadjoura gulf and more precisely in the El Kharab Pass (The Koubé is also mentionned later on...sorry, I'm unfamiliar with the geography of the region).

A camel carcass was put in a sharks cage to attract the predators. When the cage was raised out, it had been completely crushed as if by a huge, powerful animal (a Carcharodon Megalodon?).

According to Jean Jacques Barloy, commandant Cousteau had filmed the creature responsible for destroying the cage. But, due to the poor quality of the film, and fears to his reputation, Cousteau has never made the film public and apprently kept it in a safe (story told on the tv show "Science au Naturel, Oct.5 1987 on France Inter).
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I would be interested in learning more about this story. If anyone has more documentation, links, book or magazine articles, I would be grateful for any little tidbits found, mostly to see if the facts mentionned on the web site can be corroborated elsewhere.
Thank you in advance.
 
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Very interesting. That reminds me of the supposed plesiosaur spotted by the crew of the submarine "Alvin", and of Thor Heigherdal's (sic) encounter on the Kon Tiki.
Having been a sailor myself, I can honestly say it doesn't take long at sea before you start to see things possibly out of the ordinary. I can only imagine that your chances of stumbling upon a true "fortean" would increase greatly if you were to spend such a great time at sea, as Cousteau did.
 
the only Cousteau mystery thing ive heard of was that he was supposed to have accidentally introduced an algie (pardon the spelling) to the medittererian and it was suppost to have take over in certain parts

but that the only thing ive heard of

cas,
 
ysengrin said:
A camel carcass was put in a sharks cage to attract the predators. When the cage was raised out, it had been completely crushed as if by a huge, powerful animal (a Carcharodon Megalodon?).

According to Jean Jacques Barloy, commandant Cousteau had filmed the creature responsible for destroying the cage. But, due to the poor quality of the film, and fears to his reputation, Cousteau has never made the film public and apprently kept it in a safe (story told on the tv show "Science au Naturel, Oct.5 1987 on France Inter).
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Reminds me of the story of the film said to have been shot by a Scottish businessman of the Loch Ness Monster, around 1935. Supposedly it was of very good quality, but the media's treatment of the LNM had deteriorated to such an extent he had the film locked in a London solicitor's vault 'until such day as the world takes the creature seriously'. Which is to say, 'never', probably.
The irony is should the film be of the kind of quality claimed, it could be the evidence the world seeks.

Sounds more like an UL to me. Sadly. :(
 
it does sound like a ul but still i'd like to see it and if it was stored in a solicitors vault then it could have destroyed during the war or if it survived then it could be un-harmed

cas,
 
When I heard it they mentioned that it should be released again in a specific year. 95 or so. Never did I think.
 
casio said:
the only Cousteau mystery thing ive heard of was that he was supposed to have accidentally introduced an algie (pardon the spelling) to the medittererian and it was suppost to have take over in certain parts

but that the only thing ive heard of

cas,
Click to expand...

I watched a Horizon program about this 2 days ago. They wanted to introduce foreign sea slugs to eat the algae but the French government wouldn't allow it. Does anyone know whether they've been given to go ahead?
 
Well, after they had eaten the algae, I wonder what they would introduce to eat the sea slugs.
 
Without getting into the larger story, there was a shark cage used in the filming of Jaws that was well destroyed by a shark. The event was filmed by the camera that was supposed to film the shark attacking the cage.
 
This divers' Horn of Africa travelogue webpage associated with the documentary Descending :

http://descendingtv.com/episodes/episode-103-the-sea-less-travelled/

... includes a photo of the divers captioned "Ellis keeps a watchful eye on the residents while Scott examines Cousteau's old shark cage".

It's not clear whether this is the same shark cage involved in the 1980's story.
 
Cousteau died a while back.
 
I have a relative who once worked with Cousteau. The fact that he gave up diving afterwards to become a bank manager is enough comment on the chaos of a Cousteau expedition. Watch the documentary 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'.
 
lordmongrove said:
Apparently Cousteau denies it. Probably a load of cobblers.
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Where / when did Cousteau deny the story? I'm curious, because that would explain why it's mysteriously missing from his writings. Its absence is arguably the sole thing the 'monster theorists' can cite in support of their spin on the story.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I have a relative who once worked with Cousteau. The fact that he gave up diving afterwards to become a bank manager is enough comment on the chaos of a Cousteau expedition. Watch the documentary 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou'.
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Watch Cousteau's self-aggrandising documentary The Silent World to see him and his crew attacking and slaughtering a whole lot of sea life.
 
GNC said:
Watch Cousteau's self-aggrandising documentary The Silent World to see him and his crew attacking and slaughtering a whole lot of sea life.
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Yes, to get a few bits of film, they end up killing a whale. And one or two other innocent creatures. Somebody who is a diver told me this the other day.

The film later faced criticism for environmental damage done during the filmmaking. In one scene, the crew of the Calypso massacre a school of sharks that were drawn to the carcass of a baby whale, which itself had been mortally injured by the crew, albeit accidentally (Cousteau had the ship driven into a pod of whales to get a close-up view, striking one whale in the process before the baby was lacerated by the prop.) In another, Cousteau uses dynamite near a coral reef in order to make a more complete census of the marine life in its vicinity.
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EnolaGaia said:
Where / when did Cousteau deny the story? I'm curious, because that would explain why it's mysteriously missing from his writings. Its absence is arguably the sole thing the 'monster theorists' can cite in support of their spin on the story.
Click to expand...
I'm looking for the quote i saw a few days back and can't find it now. Very annoying! If i can find it again i'll post it.
 
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