About Us

Ocean Sense

Lloyd Watkins Ocean Sense MD

For the past hundred or so years, mankind had plied the world, first in
sailing ships then steam ships finally culminating today in massive transcontinental cargo ships.

Everywhere we have been along the route, hitchhikers have been with us, whether small crabs amongst the ballast rocks of early cargo and sailing vessels or larvae in amongst the ballast water tanks of today’s super vessels, the European Shore Crab has travelled the world without a passport! Arriving in the USA, Australia, South Africa and with its cousin the Mediterranean version of the European Shore Crab, travelling to Japan, it has become an invader on a global scale.

Male European Shore Crab

Outside of Europe, most people call this species, the green crab and it has a bounty on its head! The green crab behavior is doing untold damage to its adopted new homes, taking full advantage of the opportunities offered to the invasive species green crab, arriving in an area where the local population have not evolved a defence mechanism.

Over thousands of years, evolution has created a natural balance in the eco system. The shore crab lays on average about 180,000 eggs in a sitting, enough in its lifetime to ensure that two reach adulthood and successfully spawn, to further the species. In every species it’s the same, enough young are hatched for species survival. The shore crab in arriving in an eco-systems not evolved to accommodate it, is an extra predator, upsetting the natural balance and jeopardising the survival of indigenous creatures.

Checking for green crab in California

The European shore crab, along with many other species, has evolved a very specialised chemical detection system, which it uses to communicate via odour, with other crabs of the same species. These chemicals can increase or suppress appetite, attract the opposite sex and act as repellents. During the studies we have conducted, we have isolated these substances and now actively use them on our farm.

With marine aquaculture becoming a rapid growth industry, we are extremely well placed to provide the industry with a uniquely different method of productivity enhancement, in
those areas where predators such as the green crab constitute a threat.

Ocean Sense Research

Using push/pull techniques coupled with computer software our present research is
showing that productivity increases in the order of tens of percent are achievable for example in bi-valve culture, both at home and abroad.
In 2003 we formed the company Ocean Sense, with a view to exploiting this technology and we are presently in discussion with bodies in Australia and the USA to conduct collaborative survey work, to prove the effectiveness of the various chemicals in the field. Our plans are to market the technology through licensees, who will use our technology and equipment for environmentaly friendly pest control at aquaculture sites within their designated territory.