REELING IN ON marine science

Weinberger, a videographer, produced videos before the start of Reel Ocean. Through the company, he has learned to direct films and manage social media pages, as well as experience the work of Quintairos firsthand.

“I was making videos on the side as a side project. And when h came to me with his idea of making documentaries and having that as a business, I was on board. He had a strategy to make it into a business, so I just joined in,” Weinberger said. “I have been working with him for a couple years now. He has been pretty good to work with [and is] very understanding, very caring; , he’s pretty patient as well just with overall workflow.”

When seeking a way to merge his two interests, the ocean and business, Quintairos decided to pursue aquaculture, a form of farming by cultivating aquatic animals and plants in controlled environments for commercial or recreational purposes.

“So I actually wanted to study aquaculture because I had this idea of combining science and entrepreneurship, [because] both things were a passion of mine; so I saw that aquaculture was a really fast growing industry, and that if we are going to solve a lot of the environmental problems that we have as a global society, we need to fix our food system,” Quintairos said.

Although he had not originally did not planned to, Quintairos wanted to further spread his passion for the elements he currently pursues in his company by teaching high school students.

“I did not really know if I was going to like teaching or not, but about three or four months into it, I absolutely fell in love with teaching and the impact that you can have on others, and not only their opinions about the environment, but their confidence in the way they carry themselves. It is something that has given me a lot of satisfaction, watching [my students] grow as people more than just giving [them] information,” Quintairos said.

Quintairos took the initiative of not only spreading his passion for marine biology to young minds, but made it one of his goals to push students to reach their potential through the development of life skills and public speaking. In his curriculum, Quintairos incorporates business elements and requires students to develop their own start-up company and film a documentary in hopes of inspiring innovation among them. He believes these lessons contain useful information for the real world ahead of them.

Additionally, to incorporate his driven nature and hope to see students thrive, outside of marine science, Quintairos is the assistant boys lacrosse coach and sponsor of the robotics club at the school. To Quintairos, teaching holds a major part in his life whether that is inside or outside the classroom.

“[He expresses his passion for teaching] probably through a variety of ways. First and foremost, every day he comes home and he’s super excited about either something that a student taught him and stuff like that, and I know that for example, a lot of the things that he does for his business, he brings it into the classroom. So I know [his students] have seen probably a bunch of videos and snippets of his documentary, so he’s just always kind of meshing his professional life as a teacher and his business endeavors into one, and just always trying to make a difference with his students,” Quintairos’ fiancé Joanna Gomez said.

Both in the school environment and outside of it, Quintairos is always seeking a way to encourage action in the community. Due to his time researching, filming and diving in the Florida Keys, Reel Ocean has provided him a new eye-opening perspective.

“Just experiencing nature in a whole different way through a camera lens and learning how to approach certain animals so that you can get close enough to film them, and having these really unique experiences in nature has really been my favorite part about what we are doing,” Quintairos said.

Currently, Quintairos and Reel Ocean are producing a documentary alongside SeaWorld, Disney Conservation, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as well as otherand other conservation organizations in hopes of creating

Valentina Arias Multimedia Editor v.arias.thepanther@gmail.com

a meaningful impact and spreading knowledge toof environmental issues. Additionally, the company has major plans and aspirations for the future, such as selling prints of the ocean from both underwater and birdseye perspectives, and reaching a greater audience by launching their documentaries to major streaming platforms.

“I would say that [one of his best qualities] is thaÏt he just doesn’t settle. I’ve seen him work on his trailers for hours and hours and hours and I’ve seen them probably over 100 times each, but he just doesn’t settle for what I say is the goal. He’s always looking to make improvements, just to make sure that, for example, when he presents it to the board of whatever company he’s working with, [that they will] take them back,” Gomez said. “It has been an overall exciting journey for probably like, five or six years now, and it’s definitely been an exciting time. I know he definitely puts his 110 percent into his business and he’s always working on it after school, so I’m definitely proud of him.”