If I was to talk about a cartoon set under the sea then the first thing anyone would think of is Spongebob Squarepants but what if I was to tell you that there was another Undersea cartoon that not only predates Spongebob but is better. Today I talk about 1988 French Canadian cartoon Sharky & George.

Sharky & George are two private detectives who fight various gangs and villains in the city of Seacago; in fact the narrator often states that Seacago is the city of peace or something similar, either way this is how every episode starts.
The whole cartoon is a take on classic detective noir shows like Dick Tracy, Sharky even having a fedora hat like Humphrey Bogart.
Sharky is the pink shark often narrating each episode's plot. He's lazy and often driven by money, while George is the straight younger blue & yellow sidekick who keeps Sharky on focus.
A typical episode would have Sharky & George take on a case that usually involves one of a handful of villains including a Jellyfish & a Lobster. The series ran a decent length at 52 episodes and had a wide run in Europe & Canada.
The intro is very very catchy so give it a watch.

You know there really isn't much else to say about this cartoon; it's very straight forward in it's narrative and doesn't need much else. It's very much a cartoon of it's era late 80s, early 90s even though it relies on themes often shown in 50s cartoons. There is no DVD release anywhere and videos are rare treasures if anyone has them, luckily the show is relatively easy to find on Youtube so check it out.
Extra: As something that predates Spongebob by a number of years this show manages to pull off the Underwater World better than Spongebob does. The big difference is that the art style incorporates a number of dark areas that are common place in deep Oceans and add the fact that the characters look more fish than human makes it a more believable setup than Spongebob's world of fully clothed Sponges, Starfishes & Crabs.