Although he went to school to study architecture,[2] he joined his father's Cousteau Society, serving for twenty years as executive vice president before striking out on his own in 1993 to produce environmental films.

In 2003, Francesca Sorrenti and Marisha Shibuya of the SKe GROUP project, in partnership with Ocean Futures Society, collaborated to produce Water Culture, a Trolley Books publication featuring a wide variety of photographer's water-related imagery and interviews with prominent world personalities on the problems facing our water supply.

Cousteau is working on a documentary highlighting the epic and disastrous 2010 Gulf Oil Spill in which 11 workers were killed during an explosion of deepwater rig 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Louisiana, United States.

Cousteau is the President of Green Cross France & Territoires, a NGO proposing keys for actions towards a better environment for an unburdened future.

In October 2006, Cousteau, and an expedition team that includes his son Fabien and daughter Céline, began filming along the Amazon River.