Buddy diving just before and after the Second World War. After the invention of the "aqualung" by Cousteau and Gagnan, the first commercially underwater breathing apparatus became available for sale for sporting purposes in the late 1940s. As the new sport of scuba diving rapidly expanded through the 1950s, several sporting organisations—notably the YMCA—began programmes to train swimming enthusiasts in this new aquatic pastime, and began to codify what they believed were proper practises for this expanding sport. The YMCA considered the buddy system a useful corollary to the "never swim alone" rule of their swimming and lifesaving programmes. Cousteau himself independently
Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve On October 20, 1997 the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JC NERR) was dedicated in honor of Jacques Cousteau. The JC NERR is one of 26 National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) created to promote responsible use and management of our nation's estuaries. Estuaries, where the rivers meet the sea, are the wide lower course of a river where its current is met by the tides. This mix of fresh and salt water creates a unique and very productive ecosystem vital to life both on land and in the sea. The mission of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve