Somewhere in the warm waters off the Florida Keys lives a fish named Sylvia. She is six feet long, friendly as a golden retriever—and a rarity. Fabien Cousteau named the distinctive Atlantic goliath grouper after famed ocean scientist Sylvia Earle when the curious fish and her larger companion repeatedly visited Cousteau during his expedition in the undersea laboratory Aquarius off Key Largo in 2014.

The other grouper was named JYC, after Cousteau’s grandfather, Jacques Cousteau.

“As ocean icons, it seemed normal that two beautiful goliath groupers we saw almost every day would be named after my grandfather and Sylvia,” Cousteau says. “I didn’t know it was her favorite fish until much later.”

Not all hold such a reverential view