Director
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
For nearly 50 years, Dr. Megan Davis, Research Professor and Director of FAU Harbor Branch’s 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 and has designed, imple
Director
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
For nearly 50 years, Dr. Megan Davis, Research Professor and Director of FAU Harbor Branch’s 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 and has designed, implemented, and operated community-based queen conch hatcheries throughout the Caribbean. Her philosophy is to work in the communities with fisherfolk and citizens to empower them to grow their own conch for restoration and conservation. Her projects support the blue economy in the island nations by providing quality jobs for locals and diversified incomes for fisherfolk.
Dr. Davis also proposes that restoration of this keystone herbivore into seagrass habitats will assist with carbon sequestration, aiding in important international climate change mitigation efforts. More than ever, communities are seeking her knowledge as a way to bring a solution to the escalating species decline.
Assistant Director
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Becky holds an M.B.A. in Sustainable Business and has over a decade of experience in the fisheries, aquaculture, and conservation nonprofit sectors. Her experience in marketing, organizational strategy, and community building has introduced her to countless international seafood
Assistant Director
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Becky holds an M.B.A. in Sustainable Business and has over a decade of experience in the fisheries, aquaculture, and conservation nonprofit sectors. 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.
Becky is also a film producer, producing documentary short films featuring the personal stories of seafood farmers around the world. Her production experiences in the remote locations of Southeast Asia, Central & South America, and Europe have given her firsthand exposure to the intricacies and challenges of global seafood production. Becky is responsible for the development, management, and marketing of the Queen Conch Lab’s international partnership projects.
Aquaculture Specialist
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Robinson Bazurto holds a B.S. in Marine Biology and an M.B.A. in International Business and is currently in the second year of his Project Management Ph.D. He has nearly 35 years of project management experience in the fields of aquaculture and water treatment. Prior to joi
Aquaculture Specialist
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Robinson Bazurto holds a B.S. in Marine Biology and an M.B.A. in International Business and is currently in the second year of his Project Management Ph.D. He has nearly 35 years of project management experience in the fields of aquaculture and water treatment. Prior to joining the Queen Conch Lab, Robinson served as production manager for shrimp and fish cultivation operations, both in the US and abroad. He held positions as Director of Operations for Hydromentia, a water treatment technology; R&D Laboratory Operation Manager at Ziegler; and R&D Aquaculture Operations Manager at Pebble Labs. Robinson’s extensive project management and system operations experience with a variety of technologies, provides the queen conch project sites with a real-time approach for system optimization.
Research and Education Coordinator
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Amanda Matthews graduated 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 bio
Research and Education Coordinator
FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Amanda Matthews graduated 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 her M.Sc., Amanda 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.
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 Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
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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