Positions

Overview

  • Michael has been advancing open ocean farming technologies for over 30 years in the US and Abroad. In the US, he has managed submerged cage culture projects in the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii and the North Atlantic. In 2000, he took the role as Project Manager at the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) Open Ocean Aquaculture Project and the Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Center. This project was in the forefront of developing biological, engineering, and environmental technologies for the commercialization of offshore aquaculture in the US. Numerous marine culture systems were deployed, and numerous species were successfully cultured at the demonstration farm located 13 km offshore in 52m water depth. In addition, he has been training fishermen and farmers on small scale, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture of steelhead trout, blue mussels, and sugar kelp on floating platforms. More recently and funded by the Department of Energy, Michael’s been involved with multiple US institutions to develop offshore macroalgae farms for biofuel production. Internationally, Michael has engaged aquaculture projects in the Black Sea (US AID), in Norway (SINTEF Oceans and NTNU), in the Mediterranean (University and private), New Zealand (Cawthron Institute), and Cuba (federal and non-profit). Michael received a BS (Biology) from the University of Wisconsin, a MS (Mariculture) from Texas A&M and a Ph.D. (Zoology) from the University of New Hampshire. Lastly, he maintains a Master Captain’s license (100 ton) and has over 5000 hours logged diving in the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean oceans.
  • Principal Investigator On

  • Advancement of Composite Lines to Mitigate the Risk of Marine Mammal Entanglement in Kelp Aquaculture Structures  awarded by World Wildlife Fund 2021 - 2023
  • Continuous, High Yield Kelp Production  awarded by Trophic LLC 2018 - 2022
  • Commercial Scale Offshore Aquaculture Demonstration, Training and Permitting to Increase Steelhead Trout and Blue Bussel Production in New England  awarded by US DOC, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2018 - 2022
  • A pilot project to develop bottom cage blue mussel aquaculture industry with offshore implications  awarded by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 2021 - 2022
  • Phase II - Deep Sea Vision  awarded by Synthetik Applied Technologies 2021 - 2022
  • GSMFC Phase 2  awarded by University of Southern Mississippi 2019 - 2021
  • Integrated Seaweed Hatchery and Selective Breeding Technologies for Scalable Offshore Seaweed  awarded by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 2019 - 2020
  • Advancing Submerged Mussel Farming Technologies to Alleviate Eider Duck Predation  awarded by US DOC, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2017 - 2020
  • Permitting a Finfish Aquaculture Operation in the Gulf of Mexico  awarded by University of Southern Mississippi 2018 - 2019
  • AdjustDepth  awarded by University of Southern Mississippi 2018 - 2019
  • SeaPaddock  awarded by University of Southern Mississippi 2018 - 2019
  • Aqua-FE Modeling of the StormSafe Fish Cage for the North Atlantic  awarded by HexTech Canada Ltd 2018
  • Development of a Northeast Aquaculture Research Farm Network  awarded by University of Connecticut 2014 - 2017
  • Comparative Growth of Cod in Copper Cages  awarded by International Copper Association 2010
  • Education And Training

  • B.S. Aquatic Biology/Limnology, University of Wisconsin
  • M.S. Mariculture, Texas A & M University
  • Ph.D. Zoology/Animal Biology, University of New Hampshire
  • Full Name

  • Michael Chambers