Alexandra Cousteau

Alexandra Cousteau, an environmental activist and filmmaker, carries forward the legacy of her family, building upon more than 60 years of global name recognition to engage people who expect to hear credible environmental information from the third generation of this pioneering family of explorers. The experience of multiple expeditions with her grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau and father Philippe Cousteau's crew has shaped her sense of purpose, her connection to the ocean, and her love of adventure. She was one of the few who learned to dive with SCUBA from Captain Cousteau himself at the tender age of seven. The ocean has been her guide ever since.

While Cousteau continues to find inspiration in her family legacy, she has since become a globally recognized advocate on water and ocean issues in her own right, focusing on conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of these resources. She has led countless expeditions to better understand the issues facing our oceans and explore our connection to freshwater resources that are so critical to the health and prosperity of human communities. Notably, she led the Expedition Blue Planet: North America in 2010, a five-month exploration of critical water issues across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. In 2014, she led another significant expedition to Canada in partnership with the Ottawa Riverkeeper and Aqua Hacking 2015. She continues to push the boundaries of discovery, adventure, and global problem-solving.

Throughout her career, Cousteau has met with heads of state, industry leaders, fisher communities, and NGOs around the world to find solutions to pressing ocean issues. She co-founded EarthEcho International in 2000 with her brother Philippe Cousteau Jr., emphasizing her commitment to environmental advocacy. She also serves on the board of Neom, a planned cross-border city in northwestern Saudi Arabia, illustrating her global engagement with sustainability issues.

In addition to her expeditions and advocacy work, Cousteau is a skilled storyteller and sought-after keynote speaker on sustainability, conservation, and resilience to climate change. She pioneered the idea of telling real-time stories from her expeditions on social media when Facebook and Twitter were still in their infancy. In 2010, her 5-month expedition around North America was National Geographic’s first-ever “interactive expedition.” By coupling traditional media tours and film with social media platforms, she has helped water conservation programs engage record audiences for action. She has been named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and has also received an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University, her alma mater.

Cousteau began developing the Oceans2050 initiative in October 2018 and co-founded it in 2019. This global program aims at restoring ocean abundance by 2050 through a process of ocean afforestation - restoring lost coastal habitats by designing, seeding, and managing marine forests that provide habitat for marine life, reverse acidification and hypoxia, enhance coastal climate resilience and sequester CO2, where she currently serves as president. Cousteau also works closely with OCEANA as a Senior Advisor and has been deeply involved in Oceana's campaigns to curb overfishing in the countries that control about one-third of the world’s wild fish catch in order to win policy victories that can increase biodiversity in our oceans and deliver more seafood to the future.