AE2026 Plenary 2. Wednesday, Sep 30
The European Aquaculture Society is pleased to announce the three Plenary speakers for Aquaculture Europe 2026 (AE2026), taking place 28 September–1 October 2026 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, under the theme “Aquaculture in Global Change.” Across three sessions, the speakers will address the sector's resilience to climate change, how aquaculture's story can reach wider audiences, and the pathway to net zero for EU aquaculture production.
Plenary 2: “Breaking the Bubble: Making Aquaculture’s Stories Go Global.”
Wednesday, Sep 30 | 09:00 - 10:00
Larissa Lewis, SALT, UK and James Sibley, Aquaculture Creator, USA.
Room: Marmona 1+2
Despite rapid advances across farming systems, nutrition, health and technology, much of the sector’s progress remains largely invisible outside industry and research circles. As a result, aquaculture continues to face challenges around public understanding, workforce recruitment, investment confidence, social acceptance and the visibility of research and innovation. This combined presentation explores how aquaculture stories can move beyond this industry bubble – and what happens when they do.
Part 1 – Larisa Lewis: How Aquaculture Stories Travel (20 minutes)
Aquaculture research generates a vast amount of knowledge, yet much of this knowledge remains difficult for wider audiences to discover. The challenge is not simply communication, but how knowledge is structured, translated and discovered. Research outputs are typically designed for documentation: papers, reports and conference presentations. These formats are essential, but they are not designed for many of the audiences who shape the sector’s future – including entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, future workers and the wider public.
This presentation explores how aquaculture knowledge can be translated into formats designed for different audiences, from designing the user experience of knowledge platforms to producing film-led storytelling about the sector.
For research and innovation, this has growing importance. Producing knowledge is only one part of impact. Increasingly, researchers are expected to ensure their work is visible, discoverable and meaningful beyond journals, reports and conferences. Designing how aquaculture knowledge is structured and presented therefore becomes an essential part of how research and innovation reach wider audiences.
Part 2 – James Sibley: What Happens When Aquaculture Stories Reach Millions (20 minutes)
If storytelling pathways allow aquaculture knowledge to travel beyond the sector, digital media determines how far those stories can ultimately reach – and who encounters them first. For many people, platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok are now the first place they encounter aquaculture.
Through his online channels, aquaculture creator James Sibley brings global audiences directly inside farms, hatcheries and research facilities. His films translate complex farming systems, technologies and research into visual stories that reach millions of viewers and reveal how aquaculture production actually operates. Drawing on filming experiences across countries including Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and The Falklands, this presentation shares practical lessons from bringing aquaculture to large public audiences. It explores where common misconceptions about the sector tend to arise and how complex research and technologies can be explained clearly to wider audiences while maintaining scientific credibility.
These experiences illustrate how communication is becoming an increasingly important part of aquaculture’s development. When research and innovation are translated through formats that people actively engage with, they reach far beyond traditional industry channels – helping the sector become more visible, better understood and better equipped to build long-term public trust.
Larisa Lewis is a marine biologist working at the intersection of aquaculture, marketing and storytelling. Her career began in research, developing cultivation protocols for low-trophic aquaculture species across the UK, Sweden and Norway. Whilst at Seaweed Solutions, she ventured beyond the lab into the operational and market realities of commercial seaweed production. Across these roles, she saw the same challenge from different angles: aquaculture was creating real value, but too little of it was reaching the audiences, markets and decision-makers it needed. That gap led her into marketing and communications, first leading social and editorial strategy at The Fish Site, and now as Head of Operations at SALT, where she helps build purpose-led brands for the producers and innovators feeding the world.
James Sibley is a digital storyteller specializing in global aquaculture and seafood systems. He creates short- and long-form video content that explores how seafood is produced − from hatchery to harvest − bringing transparency, science, and field-level reality to a global audience of over half a million followers across social media platforms. Originally trained in biology (B.S., Northeastern University), James has worked directly within the aquaculture industry, including a year-long role in Scotland with Mowi Scotland focused on novel communications and global engagement. His work bridges field operations and public understanding, producing documentary-style content from farms, hatcheries, and processing sites worldwide. He is currently focused on expanding his video work more globally to better tell the world’s stories in aquatic cultivation as they evolve in real time.
Join us in Ljubljana
AE2026 takes place at the Gospodarsko Razstavišče Exhibition and Congress Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 28 September to 1 October 2026. Full programme and registration details are available at: