MACNA 2011 Presenter Profile: David Vosseler

Having been raised in Guyana and Hawaii into his teens, life in the tropics has always suited him. Anxious to see more of the world, David joined the Peace Corps in 1974 and spent a term in Sierra Leone returning to school upon completion. David received an MSc in Agriculture in 1983 from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

After graduating, David went to work with FSP in the Kingdom of Tonga as a Fisheries Officer where he worked with artisanal fishers. After Tonga, David spent time in Venezuela, South America working with his wife's family. A job running an NGO in Papua New Guinea however sent him back to the Pacific. David has also been, amongst other things, a railroad fireman / switchman / brakeman, land surveyor, professional fisherman (King Crab), forest firefighter, chief cook and bottlewasher.

In PNG, David worked on a range of programs involving sustainable forestry, agriculture, and fisheries, plus using drama to highlight issues on health and the environment. The MERMAID program he designed there is the precursor to what he is presently doing in PNG with the SEASMART program. He followed up the five years in PNG with two more years in Sydney Australia and two years in Washington DC working for an affiliate of the PNG organization.

David, wanting a change of scenery as well as working experience, went to work for Fauna and Flora International as their Pacific and South East Asia Director concerned mainly with elephant and tiger habitat protection. Having a new young family and needing to earn more income than what was provided by an NGO, David joined Verizon as a IT proposal writer.

After 2 years, David missing the challenges of international work, joined the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) as the person responsible for working with the trade and other stakeholders to develop standards and best practice guidance documents for MAC. Upon completion of the Standards and BPG, David became the Director of the America's and the Pacific program for MAC. While at MAC, he accessed funds and managed the program to bring MAC Certification to the trade in Fiji.

After leaving MAC, David decided that the only way to get things going the right way at the resource end of the trade's market chain, was to do it directly through his own company, EcoEZ Inc. After sending an unsolicited and eventually approved proposal to the PNG National Fisheries Authority to research the viability of having the trade in PNG, the SEASMART Program was born and a new country has entered into the trade. A country whose product tagline says it all: Papua New Guinea Marine Aquarium Life...Sustainable, Equitable, and Affordable.