AQUACULTURE / MARINE BIOLOGY
CONSULTANCIES
Phone / 61(07) 47 785 096
mobile 0447769481
Email: [email protected]
AQUASEARCH
Tropical
Aquaculture, Marine
Laboratory and Aquarium
Dr. Richard D. Braley, Chief Consultant & Manager, and
Mrs. Cornelia (Nell) H.A. Braley, Assistant Manager
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PROFILE :
Company's registered name: Aquasearch
The location and/or demographics of our region/area: Nelly Bay, Magnetic Island, 8 km off Townsville, Central Great Barrier Reef.
Company history : Aquasearch has been operating since 23 July 1987; Registered with Qld. Business Names, No. BN3158690.
Products or services - key features and benefits: Aquasearch offers Aquaculture Consultancies specialising in tropical marine and brackishwater hatcheries and nurseries as well as farm growout. Consultancies may involve design, setup and in-house training of techicians. Aquasearch also includes a small public aquarium display featuring a cultured giant clam and cultured clown anemonefish for the aquarium trade. Tours by general visitors or by schools are conducted through the aquarium. Dr. Braley has also designed and setup two snorkel trails on Magnetic Island on behalf of Tourism Operators and Businesses Magnetic Island (TOBMI). The funding came from a grant Dr. Braley obtained on behalf of TOBMI. The unique design of the trails incorporates surface and sub-surface floats with large acrylic letters which are close to points of interest and are noted on a waterproof swim card. In 2016 the snorkel trails may be simplified with a single swim card for both trails and only surface floats for the location. This will also simplify cleaning.
Areas of expertise: The owner and chief consultant, Dr. Richard Braley, is a world expert on giant clams as well as having 40 years of experinece working with Fisheries departments, Universities, and private companies on various aquaculture, fisheries, and marine tourism projects in the Pacific Islands, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, PNG and Australia.
Quality Assurance: The chief consultant has BA, MSc,
and PhD degrees in (marine) biology / zoology.
Business objectives: .
1. Obtain many loyal customers,
2. Lowest cost advertisement to attract new customers
3. Reduce costs, especially if renewable energy sources can be used,
4. Increase customer pruchases or consultancy requirements,
5. Build a good reputation in tropical coral reef species aquaculture
Mission statement: The role of Aquasearch is to ensure that the antidote for exploited marine species includes the ability of them to be aquacultured.
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Consultancy Packages
Contact Aquasearch for further information on consultancy packages tailored for your requirements.
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Practical Aquaculture Training
(click the above hyperlink for information)
For individuals or small groups (1-4) who wish to gain a better understanding of some animal husbandry and aquaculture techniques, Aquasearch offers a short, practical job-training for a weekend or 1 week maximum. This short training is appropriate for school leavers or adults who have never had experience with aquaculture or animal husbandry. Alternatively, Dr. Braley can travel and conduct a short training given there are some facilities to carry out the practical training aspects.
Testimonials regarding Aquasearch's Short AquacultureTraining:
1. "It is the perfect introduction to the basics of aquaculture. This course provides excellent content, great hands on experience, and fun field trips. I would highly recommend that anyone who is interested in the aquaculture industry to enroll in this course. Plus the 24 year old cultured Giant Clams and the Anemone fish are definitely something to see. Well worth it."
~ Mohammed Al-Kandari (Research Tech.) Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research
2. Mark Oliver (Aquaculture Trainer from Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE and private Consultant).
"Dr Braley has had a long and distinguished career in tropical aquaculture and was a pioneer in many procedures and practices that are used within present day commercial operations. His short course training materials are of exceptional quality and coupled with the hands on nature of the training, it provides a solid foundation for people wishing to enter the aquaculture industry. This form of training also caters for individuals that have both an interest in tropical marine aquatic systems and a general affinity with the plethora of fascinating organisms that inhabit the waters adjacent to the Queensland coastline."
Mark Oliver
Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE
Australian Aquaculture Support Services Pty Ltd
Ph 075456 1173
Email: [email protected]
3. "Aquasearch's aquarium and laboratory facility on Magnetic Island is
so much more than an attractive and enjoyable viewing experience, because it
also provides a unique insight into the science behind aquaculture. Dr Braley
has successfully packaged aquaculture training programs that have evolved into
an important component of this region's tropical aquaculture training capability.
The low-tech approach employed at Aquasearch lays bare the core principles of
aquaculture, and provides an especially appropriate hands-on opportunity for
capacity building for aquaculture development in remote communities both in
Australia and in developing countries. The collegiate one-on-one approach taken
by Dr Braley also fosters excellent results for participants who may require
additional help with English literacy and numeracy. The success of this professional
and science based (yet low-tech) presentation and training facility is further
uniquely enhanced by its welcoming, multi-cultural, friendly and family-based
environment."
Libby Evans-Illidge
Manager, Bioresources Library and Leader, sponge aquaculture research.
Australian Institute of marine Science
PMB 3 Townsville, 4810
47534426
[email protected]
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Publications:
Over 50 scientific publications since mid-1970s, including refereed journals, manuals, sections in books & reports. The topics include: aquaculture, tropical oysters & giant clams, cultivation & reproduction, recruitment, natural spatial distribution & abundance, use of hatchery stock to restock reefs, trochus distribution & culture, blacklip pearl oyster stocks, hatchery culture & protocols, hygiene & supplies.
Project Experience:
Stock surveys: coral trout & giant clams on the GBR, Australia (for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority).
Stock surveys: giant clam & pearl oysters in Pacific Islands (for FAO).
Hatchery setup (Macrobrachium sp. & penaeid prawns) at Seafarm Pty. Ltd., Qld., Australia.
Hatchery farm input with team (giant clams) for ACIAR/James Cook University, Qld., Australia.
Hatchery design for Cook Islands + input in Philippines, Tonga, Fiji, Tuvalu, & Kiribati in connection with the ACIAR / James Cook University Giant Clam Project.
MSEP (Marine Sciences Education Project) Consultant on an ADB-project at 6 Indonesian Universities; seawater systems & hatchery / lab designs + training [UNRI-Sumatra;IPB-Java;UNDIP-Java;UNHAS-So. Sulawesi; UNSRAT-No. Sulawesi, UNPATTI-Ambon].
Design, on-site setup, training at world's first commercial trochus hachery, Molluccas Mariculture pearl farm, E. Indonesia.
Conceptual designs for multi-species hatcheries: 1) Ceram Island, E. Indonesia, 2) Kimberley Aquaculture Corp., Broome, W.A., Australia, 3) Torres Strait Regional Authority for multi-species hatchery feasibility study.
Head of ADB project Outer Islands Marine Resources Management Training Project; upgrading & commercialising a blacklip pearl oyster hatchery + lagoon growout trials for Cook Islands Government - Penrhyn, Cook Islands.
Design, fitting-out, training for a new private blacklip pearl oyster hatchery at Fakarava, Tuamotu, French Polynesia.
Troubleshooting for a scallop hatchery (Amusium balloti) & recirculation system initiated in Geraldton, W.A., Australia.
Modification designs for brackishwater & saltwater hatcheries in Bangladesh for the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute & a World Bank Project [through Arcadis Euroconsult]; species included Macrobrachium freshwater prawn, mudcrab & seabass (barramundi).
Management in large commercial silverlip pearl oyster (Pinctada maxima) farm in eastern Indonesia for 2 years. Hatchery, juvenile growout, selection, conditioning, operations, x-raying, and harvest, daily checks on oysters lifted on cleaning boats, nuclei stock management, and research programs.
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Stock microalgae,
Chaetoceros muelleri, reared with Aquasearch
medium. This medium is cheap and works as well as the standard f2 algal
medium for diatoms, for Chlorella- type microalgae,
and for some flagellate microalgae. Dr. Braley has started microalgal labs
in hatcheries and laboratories in the Pacific,
Photographs (above and
below) of the Pohon Batu (W. Seram Island, Maluku, Indonesia) Moluccas Mariculture
Trochus Hatchery. View from the sea with the jetty being constructed in
1996. This is the World’s first commercial
trochus hatchery designed by Dr. Rick Braley.
Barrang Lompo Isl., So.
Sulawesi, Indonesia. Setup and training in shellfish hatchery, R. Braley 1994-95
A marine ornamental, the
clown anemonefish [Amphiprion percula]
for display and breeding at Aquasearch
Wild blacklip pearl oyster
spat [Pinctada margaritifera]
collected by divers (above), and hatchery-reared blacklip pearl oyster spat
in nursery growout. Penrhyn lagoon, northern Cook Islands, 1996-97.
Dr. Rick Braley was contracted to head an Asian Development Bank Project aimed
to establish in-house expertise to run a re-designed blacklip pearl oyster hatchery,
to undertake lagoon environmental monitoring and management, to design pearl
farm research trials, to undertake extension in cultured pearl farming, and
to impart environmental awareness among the island communities. One of
the major achievements was the production of >450,000 spat by mid-1997, which
may have held the distinction of being a world record spat production of this
species to that date. Dr. Braley also worked in management of a large pearl
farm in eastern Indonesia from 2004-2006 with the silver-lip pearl oyster Pinctada
maxima.
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AQUASEARCH
PrimaryBusiness Address
6-10 Elena St., Nelly
Bay, Magnetic Island,
Qld.4819
Phone: (07) 47 785 096
mobile 0447769481
Click here to read some papers by Dr. Rick Braley
Updated 26 May 2016; Copyright © Aquasearch
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