Meet The Team

Espadon Marine is managed by a dedicated team that has a range of skills from general business to the very technical field of aquaculture production. Our staff all strive to produce and provide the best quality seafood available for the local market so should you have any specific questions, please contact the relevant person.

Liam Ryan
Managing Director
(B.SC.Ed), (ISO 9000 Series Auditor, plus various Quality systems & core Tools qualifications)

After completing a Bachelor of Science Degree in General & Rural Science at Thomond College of Education in Limerick, Ireland, now known as the University of Limerick, Liam moved to Africa. He became acquainted with African cultures and gained experience as a skills development and training facilitator when he was a teacher in Zimbabwe and Pretoria (Tshwane) during 1985 - 1991. Liam lectured subjects such as Science, Economics, Agriculture, Maths and Biology at various levels up to FET level.

During 1991 Liam studied Quality Systems Management at Pretoria Technikon and later joined Flextech cc, as Quality Manager. Liam successfully had Flextech certified to the following Quality systems, Ford Q101, Ford Q1, Nissan "A", Volkswagen "A", ISO/9002, ISO/TS 16949 and ISO14001. In 1994 he took over general management of the company after which Flextech was awarded the Ford Motor Company’s overall Supplier of the Year in 1996. Liam bought out Flextech cc, to form Flextech Manufacturing (PTY) Ltd in 1998 and became the sole owner as well as the Managing Director.

Liam's 15 years of experience in the tough international automotive industry, which specializes on lean manufacturing methods, efficiencies, best practices, financial controls & stringent quality systems is a valuable asset to Espadon Marine.

Liam has extensive experience in skills development as Flextech was the largest single trainer of Engineering Learnerships in the automotive sector. As a climax in this regard Liam was invited as one of the guest speakers on skills development along with the Premier of Gauteng at the graduation of 280 engineering learners in Pretoria in 2007.

Email: liam@espadonmarine.co.za

Guy Musson
Operations Director
(B.Journ (Zoology, Botany, Ichthyology), Nat. Dip. Nature Conservation)

Guy has been involved in aquaculture for over 20 years and is vastly experienced in this field. He has assisted in developing trout facilities in Botswana and has five years experience in managing trout hatcheries and farms in the Western Cape, where he was responsible for large annual production outputs. He was the Senior Aquarist at the Two Oceans Aquarium, Cape Town where he was directly involved in the design, building, fish capture and fish holding for the new Aquarium. He has also worked as hatchery manager on one of the biggest abalone farms in South Africa where he contributed greatly to the increase in the annual production at this facility. Guy has worked as an environmental consultant for more than three years where he managed various projects and developed environmental management plans for construction sites. He successfully raised dusky kob at the M&CM Research Aquarium, and from there developed and constructed Espadon Marine Hatcheries in Hermanus, which to date has produced more than a million dusky kob fingerlings. As technical director of Espadon Marine, he was also directly involved in developing and designing the current recirculation system in Gauteng. Guy is overseeing all operations at the ELIDZ facility.

Email: guy@espadonmarine.co.za

Maryke Musson
Research and Development Manager
(B.Sc - Zoology and Medical Physiology, Current – MSc Ichthyology (Rhodes))

Maryke has been working in Marine Science for the past 15 years, of which more than 10 years specifically in aquaculture. She started as an aquarist at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, where she was involved in collections and display maintenance. After leaving the aquarium she acted as consultant to various mariculture institutions, including 2 abalone farms. In 1999 she started research, funded by Espadon Marine, on seahorses at the M&CM Research Aquarium in Sea Point, Cape Town. She successfully bred many species of seahorses and developed various successful treatment protocols. Maryke was very involved in the first captive rearing of dusky kob that spawned naturally at the Two Oceans Aquarium, and has since been Technical Manager and Production Director of Espadon Marine Hatcheries and Espadon Marine. Maryke has successfully trained numerous previously disadvantaged individuals as hatchery and farm technicians, specifically in fish husbandry, larval rearing and culture management. In 2007 and 2008 Maryke made a number of presentations at Rhodes University seminars and M&CM Frontier Fund report back workshops on egg and larval quality of dusky kob. At the annual AASA conference in 2007 she presented an award-winning poster on larval rearing of kob. She has done extensive work on the ontogenetic development of the digestive tract of dusky kob larvae.

Email: maryke@espadonmarine.co.za

Niall Vine
General Manager
M.Sc. (Ichthyology), Ph.D. (Fisheries Science) – Rhodes University

Niall was the marine hatchery manager for the Department of Ichthyology & Fisheries Science (DIFS), Rhodes University for 9 years, during his studies. This facility is 60km from coast and therefore uses carefully managed RAS to maintain the various species in the hatchery. Before becoming a member of the Espadon Marine team in 2008 he also taught undergraduate and post-graduate ichthyology and supervised post-graduate students in mariculture research. Along with a colleague professor he has been primarily responsible for managing two DEAT/M&CM Mariculture Frontier Programme projects on dusky kob aquaculture. These projects involved, (amongst other things), optimizing the grow-out and metabolic (Oxygen consumption and ammonia production) requirements of the species, both of which are important when designing species-specific culture systems. He has published 5 peer-reviewed papers and numerous conference papers.

Email: niall@espadonmarine.co.za

Craig Clayden
Operations manager
B.Sc. Hons (Ichthyology) - Rhodes University

Craig has been involved in aquaculture from the early 90's and was intimately involved in the development of abalone aquaculture production from spawning to grow-out. He also, together with Rhodes University, helped perfect the formulated abalone feed, Abfeed which is used internationally. Craig’s experience in the development and construction of aquaculture facilities together with his science based background, contributes hugely to the development and success of Espadon Marine.

Email: craig@espadonmarine.co.za

Johnathan Philander
Hatchery Manager
Certificate on disease management in the aquaculture environment.

Johnathan grew up on the banks of the Breede River and there is nothing that he does not know about kob. Critical to the success of any aquaculture venture is its broodstock. In the case of dusky kob it is very difficult to find and catch suitable specimens for the broodstock of an enterprise as they have historically been caught before they could become mature at roughly 10kg in size. Johnathan was almost solely responsible for the collection of Espadon Marine’s broodstock and currently manages this prized number of fish. Johnathan's in-house training has developed him into an excellent hatchery manager, with a natural ability to rear not only juvenile kob, but all the live feeds associated with it. Substantiating his already vast practical experience he recently completed a course in aquaculture disease management.

Email: jphilander@espadonmarine.co.za

Zinzi Dubula-Nowa
Office Manager
(N.Dip Education – UNITRA, Certificate in Financial Management – CPUT)

Zinzi joined Espadon Marine recently after working at Marine & Coastal Management. She has gained experience in the financial and client services sectors over the last eight years. Zinzi oversees all administrative duties within Espadon Marine.

Email: zinzi@espadonmarine.co.za

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