WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • SEPTEMBER 2014 17 In Memoriam My longtime friend and business partner, Douglas G. Drennan, III, passed away suddenly this July. He is survived by his wife Kathy, two sons Graham and Robert and daughter Elizabeth. A shock to all who knew him, his death was recently acknowledged by a large cross-section of the New Orleans community that he had so much passion for. Here I make an effort to comment on his professional life within our aquaculture community. Doug was demonstrating recirculating aquaculture system technologies in the midst of pond culture of catfish country in the early 1990s when I first met him. A young man then, fresh out of the Mississippi State University fisheries program, he was bold enough to try to demonstrate recirculating tank culture technology to the pond-dominated catfish production industry of the Mississippi Delta. Technically successful, his efforts were rewarded with boycotts and ultimately project closure. Undeterred, he joined our fledgling recirculating program at the Civil Engineering Aquatic Systems Laboratory at Louisiana State University where, as a research associate, he focused on the application of floating bead filter technologies to tank culture. In the mid-1990s, Doug left the university, acquired the production rights to the propeller-washed floating bead filter and established Aquaculture System Technologies, LLC (AST) in New Orleans. Doug had a natural genius for logistics and demonstrated this repeatedly. In AST’s first year of existence, he transitioned from a cold start to develop molds and deliver over 200 propellerwashed filters. A few years later he coordinated the manufacture of the largest paddle-washed filters (450 ft3 or 13 m3) ever constructed, a task that required detailed engineering and manufacturing from across the United States. Twice he led his company through devastating hurricanes, including the notorious Katrina that left his beloved city flooded. He successfully orchestrated a decade-long penetration of the zoological industries. In addition to aquaria, floating bead filters are now being used to filter mammalian, bird, and reptilian water features across the country. In recent years, he has been successfully expanding floating bead filters technologies into the international arena. On the surface, AST was a manufacturing operation, but to Doug it was a foundation for innovation and advocacy. In addition to manufacturing propeller-washed filters, bubble-washed floating bead filters and ultimately the PolyGeyser® line, he continued to work closely with universities and other industries to establish one of the most successful Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) programs in US aquaculture. In addition, AST served as a commercial collaborator on a wide variety of university research grants, an activity that facilitated a smooth transition of theoretical ideas into the more concrete SBIR program. With support from NOAA’s National Sea Grant Program, the US Department of Agriculture, and the National Science Program he directed an applied SBIR research program that was continuously funded for a 20-year period. These grants investigated topics ranging from airlift bioclarifier operations, bio-plastic based denitrification, electro-coagulated assisted clarification and automated rotifer production. These have and will continue to control new AST product introductions. Perhaps more astounding is how Doug grew beyond his passion for floating bead filters and recirculating technologies to become an advocate for the broader aquaculture industry. Serving on several committees, he had been a member of the American Fisheries Society since 1987. A longtime member and supporter of the World Aquaculture Society, he served as Vice-President of the US Aquaculture Society in 2002. He was also a member of the American Tilapia Association and the Aquaculture Engineering Society. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the U.S. Aquaculture Suppliers Association in 1997 and was at the time of his death serving his final year as President of that organization. Douglas was able to rise above his commercial interests, finding the common ground to become an effective servant for the diverse aquaculture industry. Lost to us before he fully matured in this mode, Doug was evolving into a highly effective aquaculture advocate. Those of us that knew Doug personally will miss him most for his wry smile, gregarious nature, and boundless energy. I suspect that we can ultimately find two to three people to fill the gap that he left at AST but we will never recover what he knew about such things as the pitch and spacing of embedded propellers. Another leader will arise to serve aquaculture but we can all be assured that things will be different without Douglas at the table. — Ron Malone, Louisiana State University Douglas Drennan (1962-2014) Those of us that knew Doug personally will miss him most for his wry smile, gregarious nature, and boundless energy.
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