From the Telegraph in the UK comes this story about Tintin books providing inspiration for the study of sharks. The image on the cover of one of the books provided a gem of a thought.
“The grandson of Jacques Cousteau has continued the family tradition of underwater exploring by tracking sharks in a submarine inspired by a Tintin book.
Fabien Cousteau, 38, first saw the cover of Red Rackham’s Treasure, showing Tintin in a shark-shaped submarine searching for ancient treasure on the ocean floor, when he was seven.
The shark-shaped submarine allows Fabien Cousteau to film sharks behaving naturally
Only now has his dream of emulating the boy detective come true, thanks to Troy, named after the Trojan horse.
The submarine is so close in appearance and movement to the great white sharks that live off Guadeloupe, part of Baja California, that they have accepted the craft as one of their own and given him an unmatched opportunity to observe and film their lives.”
I have dived over many years with sharks all over the Pacific and Indonesia and the Red Sea. Shark’s probably would not see this device as a shark although it looks like one to us. They have poor eyesight but rely on their other senses for information. These other senses are far more sensitive than ours. This device has been built to provide novelty for diving TV programs not for sharks who would see it for what it is .. some rubber with a diver inside.
Herge is in my view a more creative individual than Jaques Cousteau’s grandson who is copying both Herge’s ideas and his Grandfather’s lifestyle like a bad Chinese manufacturer.