My interests lie in the development of sustainable aquaculture technologies that are appropriate to the socio-ecological context of Small Island Developing States in the Western Indian Ocean.

I have over 12 years’ experience in the aquaculture industry in both temperate and tropical environments. In my early career, I developed integrated aquaculture systems in Scotland for the cultivation of Atlantic salmon, sea urchins and seaweed and pioneered the development of sea cucumber and seaweed farming in Madagascar. Since then, I have worked extensively in the field of tropical sea cucumber aquaculture in the Western Indian Ocean and further afield, including including Indonesia, New Caledonia, Madagascar, Tanzania, South Africa, Seychelles, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Mozambique, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Namibia and Thailand.

My research interests focus on understanding how sediment microbial communities and deposit feeding invertebrates interact to process organic matter and how these relationships can be harnessed and manipulated to enhance the bioremediation of aquaculture wastes. My PhD research focused on the development of state-of-the-art integrated aquaculture production and bioremediation systems, to culture high value sea cucumbers on effluent streams from land-based intensive aquaculture. I am particularly interested in the study of organismal and system microbiomes and the role they play in nutrient cycling. I will be pioneering novel techniques and technologies to improve the sustainability of aquaculture by promoting the assimilation and retention of nitrogen into biomass as opposed to its permanent removal.

I have consulted for a wide range of private sector companies, international organisations, governments and NGO’s including AquaSol, Aqua-Spark, the National Aquaculture Group (NAQUA) in Saudi Arabia, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.  These have mostly taken the form of commissioned reports, pilot studies, scoping reports and due diligence reviews; a full list of this work can be seen on the 'Activities' tab of my profile.