Jacques Cousteau - Pacific Explorations

The northwest coast of Australia is home to a dazzling array of marine life - and the site of human drama. Impoverished Indonesian fishermen, their homeland depleted of oceanic wealth, ply Australian waters in rickety boats. With handmade goggles and a gulp of air, they dive for the sea's bounty. But Australia's aboriginal people, who depend on the same waters, are determined to conserve these valuable resources. Mel Gibson narrates this exciting exploration of the clash between human needs and the earth's needs.

Stretching 1200 miles along the coast of Queensland, Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is a turquoise-and-indigo realm often called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Jacques Cousteau and crew sail this glorious seascape where 1500 species of fish swirl and bob through a coral forest. The fascinating sights include o· floating hotel, a swampland encounter with the behemoth Australian sea crocodile and an underwater snowstorm - the astonishing, justdiscovered secret of coral reproduction. Anthony Hopkins narrates.

Jacques Cousteau journeys to an underwater time capsule. Off the barren west coast of Australia lie shallow coral outposts rich with a variety and abundance of marine life that were common in many areas when Cousteau started his diving career and are all too rare today. Here sea snakes that left land 20-million years ago, docile sea cows, 100-pound groupers and a rainbow of tropical fish co-exist with industry: environmentally conscious lobsterers and pearlers who practice sustainable fishing. Mel Gibson narrates.

Mel Gibson narrates this film voyage to under Downunder: the island of Tasmania. In the temperate sea, kelp forests nurture the fascinating, stick-thin Tasmanian sea dragon. On land, Tasmanian devils refute their reputation for ferocity. Mutton birds, who migrate an astonishing 18,000 miles a year, are prey for tiger snakes. And contemporary Tasmanians awakened to the duty of environmental stewardship challenge the logging industry that has devastated much of their island's beauty.

For 200-million years, a scaly behemoth - reaching 23 feet in length and weighing up to a ton - ruled the swamps. The crocodile, once hunted almost to extinction, today flourishes in Australia's Kakadu National Park. It shares its watery home with monitor lizards, one-third of Australia's bird species, and aboriginal people who mastered the use of fire to control their environment. The Cousteau team also visits Kangaroo Island, where 'roos roam free. Then, it's on to a different kind of ocean, a mummified landscape in the Australian interior that 350-million years ago was a seabed abundant with life. This unforgiving place, where temperatures can reach 130°, now is home to hardy termites, dingoes, kangaroos and aboriginals who respect the searing land and wrest sustenance from it. The People. of the Dry Sea find water in wood, dig grubs and practice a rich spirituality centered on their Genesis, the "Dream Time". Mel Gibson narrates.

Two thousand miles long, bathed by subtropical waters at its north and sub-Antarctic waters at its south, New Zealand beckons the Calypso to explore. From coastal sea grottoes to the dark waters of fjords, a rich array of marine life, including argonauts, octopi, Medusa jellyfish, and feathery black coral, astonish the eye. On land, steaming geysers and bubbling mud pots attest to New Zealand's reputation as a geothermal wonderland - and flightless kiwis, once threatened, now inhabit protected land. Anthony Hopkins narrates.

New Zealand is a land rich in forests and fjords, mists and mystery. But commerce imperils much of the nation's beauty and resources. The Cousteau team witnesses old-growth forests stripped for timber wealth, hovers in a helicopter over dark waters where Japanese ships vacuum the sea of squid, and films the astonishing elephantfish, netted to be half of fish and chips. The native Maori culture suggests a different path: a reverence for everything living.

Earthquake! The biggest shake in 100 years hits New Zealand and the Cousteau team is on the spot. Twisted railroad tracks and a deep fissure in the earth attest to nature's power. The crew explores White Island, a smoking volcano near the quake epicenter, then discovers an underwater link - a miniature mountain spewing steam. More highlights include glorious scenes of rays and golden snapper floating over lava flows, a stranded ship, and a goat-anddeer roundup on Auckland Island. Anthony Hopkins narrates.

"In 1930, an event took place here that can never happen again on earth," narrator Joseph Campanella says. "Two prospectors and their bearers entered a high valley of what is now Papua New Guinea and discovered a civilization of nearly a million people completely unknown to the outside world." The Cousteau team treks inland to meet these fascinating people who use magic to fish and speak almost half the world's languages. One discovery: an eerie tableau of preserved bodies, a shrine to valiant enemies killed in battle.

Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team journey up the Sepik River, the Amazon of Papua New Guinea, to explore an ancient culture where the crocodile is hunted, feared and revered as master of the spirit world. Along the Sepik, barefooted hunters capture baby crocs, young men endure agonizing coming-of-age ceremonies - their skin is scarred in a two-hour ordeal that transforms two-thirds of their bodies into pebbled "crocodile hide" - and people live in harmony with nature. Joseph Campanella narrates.

Tranquil and lush, Papua New Guinea seems a world removed from modern conflict. But its beauty hides a violent past; Papua New Guinea was the scene of some of the most furious clashes of World War II. The Cousteau team explores undersea relics of that war as they investigate Japanese ships, a biplane, and Black Jack, a downed American B-17. On land, eyewitnesses share their memories, and the team is welcomed to the village where natives rescued the Black Jack crew. Joseph Campanella narrates.