Ocean • Innovation • Exploration
Managing innovation to advance ocean conservation. Exploring what's possible in open water. Connecting the two wherever I can.
Building Moonshots
As Project Director at The Nature Conservancy, I lead cross-functional teams building frontier technology to solve intractable ocean problems at a global scale.
Led development and deployment of a category-defining web platform supporting small-scale fishing communities in navigating tradeoffs between ecological sustainability and economic livelihoods. Live across Mexico, Hawaii, French Polynesia, and Micronesia.
Watch on VimeoLed a cross-functional team of industry partners, academics, and engineers to develop the first-of-its-kind low-cost system for ranching purple urchins — incentivizing removal of an overabundant population to restore decimated kelp forests.
Urchin Ranching Manual The Washington PostDirected team building a machine learning image recognition system for fisheries data collection. Took it from concept through field testing to production deployment in Baja California Sur.
Meet Poseidon — Notes from the FieldManaged product development of a native iOS/Android application connecting fishermen to retrieve lost fishing gear from the ocean — reducing wildlife entanglement risk through community-driven technology.
As Science Director at Olazul in La Paz, Mexico, oversaw installation of offshore aquaculture systems with local fishermen-divers — developing alternative livelihoods to overfishing.
Credentials & Career
From scientific diving, to building and running offshore aquaculture sites, to diver instruction, to coaching open water swimmers.
Exploration
Here are a sample of the ocean adventure projects that keep me energized and curious.
First person to swim around Isla Espíritu Santo — 42.7 km in 16+ hours through open Pacific waters. Officially ratified.
Official RatificationInnovating multi-day swim expeditions — combining open water distance swimming with self-supported backcountry exploration. Carrying everything you need on your back, in the ocean.
Read the featureCo-founded Baja Swim Dog LLC — building products and community around open water swimpacking exploration.
bajaswimdog.comCo-created the Coastal Explorers Project — mapping and documenting iconic swim routes along the coast of Baja California Sur.
openwaternadamas.com