Software for Sustainable Development
of Open Ocean Fish Farms

Dr. Dale Kiefer

Dr. Kiefer, who obtained his doctorate in biological oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is a Professor of Biology at USC. He has published over 75 papers in the fields of marine microbiology and optics and has obtained 3 U.S. patents for inventions in optical instrumentation and wave damping floats. He has worked extensively on water quality monitoring, plankton models, remote sensing, and marine conservation.

Dr. Jack Rensel

Dr. Rensel is a leading expert in aquaculture research and environmental issues. He is deeply involved in field research and monitoring and used that information to advocate for rational state and federal environment performance evaluation for net pen aquaculture. For AquaModel, he is involved in conceptual model development, model testing and validation and outreach. He also conducts research on current aquaculture and food web topics in fresh and marine waters, including studies of the beneficial food web aspects of optimally sited commercial net pens, using promising tools such as stable isotope analysis. Dr. Rensel work on projects in North and South America, the Caribbean Sea, South East Asia and in other locations worldwide. Dr. Rensel is a recognized international expert on harmful algal bloom dynamics and has been involved in development and testing of mitigation strategies for farmed and wild stocks.

Frank O'Brien

Frank, who obtained his master's degree in Mathematics specializing in Statistics from the University of Vermont, is the Director of Software Engineering for System Science Applications. He is software architect and designer with over 45 years experience in the field of software analysis and design. He collaborated in the development of the first version of EASy software. In addition to this, he provides a continuous supply of elegant tools for the analysis and visualization of geographic information for use in SSA's many environmental and engineering projects.

Daniel P. Harrison

Daniel is an engineer from Australia and member of the Ocean Technology Group at the University of Sydney. His work with OTG included an engineering thesis on a high resolution underwater sonar that was under development by the Royal Australian Navy, and work on enhancing carbon storage in the oceans by new technologies including Ocean Nourishment, and Ocean Alkalinity Shift. As a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California he focused on GIS applications in research and management for both fisheries and aquaculture. His interests include the tuna species of Pacific Ocean and shark species of the California Current System. He is a key member of the development team for SSA's Pelagic Habitat Analysis Module.