Director
FAU HBOI
For more than 40-years Dr. Megan Davis, Research Professor and lead for FAU's Harbor Branch Queen Conch Lab, has been studying the queen conch life cycle and innovating ways to save the species. She has become the world’s foremost expert on queen conch aquaculture, or farming, and has designed, implemented, and operated
Director
FAU HBOI
For more than 40-years Dr. Megan Davis, Research Professor and lead for FAU's Harbor Branch Queen Conch Lab, has been studying the queen conch life cycle and innovating ways to save the species. She has become the world’s foremost expert on queen conch aquaculture, or farming, and has designed, implemented, and operated community-based queen conch hatcheries throughout the Caribbean. Her philosophy is to work in the communities with the fisherfolk and citizens to empower them to grow their own conch for restoration and conservation. Her work enhances the blue economy by providing jobs for local staff and diversified incomes for fisherfolk. In addition, she proposes that restoration of this keystone herbivore into seagrass habitats will assist with carbon sequestration, aiding in important international climate change mitigation efforts. Dr. Davis and her team are currently involved in projects in Florida, The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Jamaica and several other Caribbean nations. More than ever, communities are seeking her knowledge as a way to bring a solution to the escalating species decline.
Assistant Director
FAU HBOI
Becky Holt is a senior executive and holds an M.B.A. in Sustainable Business. She has over a decade of experience in the aquaculture and conservation nonprofit sector. Her experience in marketing, organizational strategy, and community building has introduced her to countless international seafood operators --
Assistant Director
FAU HBOI
Becky Holt is a senior executive and holds an M.B.A. in Sustainable Business. She has over a decade of experience in the aquaculture and conservation nonprofit sector. Her experience in marketing, organizational strategy, and community building has introduced her to countless international seafood operators -- from artisanal fishers to the leading aquaculture producers. She helps to develop partnerships for the Queen Conch Lab that will lead to a conch farm in every Caribbean Nation.
Aquaculture Specialist
FAU HBOI
Robinson Bazurto holds a B.S. degree in Marine Biology and an M.B.A. in International Business and is currently in the second year of his Project Management Ph.D. Mr. Bazurto has nearly 35 years of project management experience in the fields of aquaculture and water treatment. Before joining our team, Mr. B
Aquaculture Specialist
FAU HBOI
Robinson Bazurto holds a B.S. degree in Marine Biology and an M.B.A. in International Business and is currently in the second year of his Project Management Ph.D. Mr. Bazurto has nearly 35 years of project management experience in the fields of aquaculture and water treatment. Before joining our team, Mr. Bazurto served as production manager for both shrimp and fish cultivation operations, both in the US and abroad, and then as a Director of Operations for Hydromentia, a water treatment technology; as R&D Laboratory Operation Manager at Ziegler; and currently as R&D Aquaculture Operations Manager at Pebble Labs. Mr. Bazurto’s extensive project management and system operations experience with a variety of technologies provides a real-time approach for system optimization.
Research and Education Coordinator
FAU HBOI
Amanda Matthews is a recent graduate from Florida Atlantic University where she earned a M.Sc. in Biology under Dr. Megan Davis. She is interested in sustainable food systems, and her graduate work investigated how frequent harvesting affects the nutritional content and biomass production of an
Research and Education Coordinator
FAU HBOI
Amanda Matthews is a recent graduate from Florida Atlantic University where she earned a M.Sc. in Biology under Dr. Megan Davis. She is interested in sustainable food systems, and her graduate work investigated how frequent harvesting affects the nutritional content and biomass production of an aquacultured Florida native sea vegetable, Suaeda linearis. Before undertaking her M.Sc., she worked as an environmental educator where she promoted the conservation of Florida’s native flora and fauna. Her passion for restoring wild food sources led her to join the Queen Conch lab in 2023.
Advisor
Principal Member, Retired
CAWALN Consulting
Mr. Waln has over 40 years of experience in engineering, program management, test & evaluation and strategic planning and management. Seventeen of those years were in Federal policy and financial management roles. He presently mentors executives and college students in strategic decision making.
Stewart Moreaux
Jeff Smith
Dave Bourdette
Ben Metzger
FAU HBOI
These engineers are the masterminds behind our mobile queen conch labs.
We collaborate daily with our partners in Naguabo, Puerto Rico. Conservación ConCiencia and the Naguabo Fishing Association are instrumental to the success of the island's first community-led conch hatchery for restoration.
We are partnering with Blue Action Lab, a Grand Bahamian blue/green accelerator, to unite with the community and its local NGOs to pilot-test queen conch aquaculture for restoration, sustainable seafood, and pearl culture.
We are partnering with the Jamaica Conch Restoration Project and UWI to develop onshore queen conch aquaculture facilities (mobile lab) at the UWI Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory, as well as protected growout areas for species restoration purposes.
We worked with Green Island Blue Ocean (Catherine Booker) to develop the FAU Mobile Lab and this project has since rolled into a partnership with BNT to operate the lab with the goal of restocking queen conch in BNT’s managed Moriah Harbor Cay National Park in Great Exuma. This project’s funding is from the Richard Schneider Trust.
The Curaçao Hatchery, located at the Curaçao Sea Aquarium, has been in operation since 2020. The Queen Conch Lab provides scientific advice and training for the team that operates a medium-size hatchery. With a captive population of adult queen conch the hatchery has a steady supply of conch eggs and continues to show success in growing conch juveniles for restoration and sustainable seafood purposes.
President, Jamaica Conch Restoration Project
USA & Jamaica
Policy Advisor for Nature and Fisheries
St. Eustatius Government,
St. Eustatius
Entrepreneur, Environmentalist and Aquaculturist (Erasmus Plus Scholar)
Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Aquaculture and Marine Scientist and Founder of Caribbean Aquaculture Network
Italy & Jamaica
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