“Amazonia is at our mercy... Will we approach its marvels with a sense of power or a sense of wonder?” - Jacques Cousteau, 1981 

This is the question Jacques Cousteau asked after he navigated the entire 4,000-mile length of the Amazon with his son Jean-Michel during a 22-month-long expedition in 1981, revealing many of its mysteries—and discovering that many more still lay hidden in its bewildering jungle and mystifying waters.

Fabien was only 15 and Céline nine when they tagged along with their grandpa JYC on parts of his Amazon expedition during their summer vacations. Here they recount some of their favorite memories, along with some of the other original crew members from Jacques Cousteau’s Amazon expedition— Jean-Michel Cousteau, Dr. Richard Murphy, Albert Falco, Tim Trabon and Don Santee—who collectively have logged more than 170 hours of expedition adventures together.    

Twenty-five years later, Jean-Michel returns to one of the least explored realms of the world  with his children, Fabien, 40, and Céline, 35, and his Ocean Futures Society team to find the answer to this and other questions for his documentary Return to the Amazon, set to air on PBS in April 2008.