The recent announcement of the speakers on an aquaculture panel at the SXSW conference caused quite a stir. Offended by the line-up, an opinion piece published by Intrafish judged the panel as ill-qualified and made other suggestions. The core question was phrased as “Why should these people represent the aquaculture industry? They know nothing about it!”

I’ll tell you a secret. Two-and-a-half years ago, I didn’t know anything about aquaculture either. Not even the term! But I am a passionate diver and concerned about our ocean health. Seeing the damage first-hand, the question I asked myself was: “Don’t we have a better path to producing seafood?”

Thanks to the TED talks of Bren Smith and Mike Velings, as well as the openness of the aquaculture community on social media, a passion ignited that sparked a career. I went down the rabbit hole and never looked back. We need our storytellers and advocates as much as we need every farmer, feed PhD, equipment manufacturer and veterinarian. Considering the beating that aquaculture still regularly receives in the public eye, I am overjoyed to see people like Alexandra Cousteau, whose name is synonymous with the ocean conservation movement, advocate for aquaculture.

Can they run a farm? Of course not. But they might just inspire talented people to join, or invest in, our fascinating industry.