Kōrero: Marine conservation

In the 1960s the French diver Jacques Cousteau had a popular television series in which he sailed the oceans in his vessel Calypso. By filming the world beneath the sea he revealed its diversity and fragility to millions of people. The topic of this 1986 cartoon is the French nuclear testing at Moruroa (Mururoa) Atoll, which only ended in 1996. Concerns about radioactive material contaminating the water led to calls for the French to stop testing. The campaign in the Pacific entered the public consciousness and helped focus conservation efforts on the marine environment.