AMA Directors
Australasian Marine Associates provides specialist marine environmental engineering consulting services for aiding the inception, execution and delivery of marine infrastructure and dredging projects.
Complimentary services include facilitating permitting and licence conditions at a State and Federal level, as well as project management and engineering procurement and contract management services.
Coupled with advanced marine environmental, coastal processes and bathymetric mapping capabilities, we supply a fully integrated service for projects that interface with marine and coastal environments.
Our team specialists have experience in working in South America, West Africa, Singapore, the Torres Strait Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, as well as throughout Australia.
Our team consists of expertise in marine ecology, marine megafauna surveys, water quality and sediment chemistry, coastal engineering, maritime infrastructure, oceanography and ecotoxicology.
Our depth of experience is vast and our team consists of personnel who sit on the DoE Commonwealth Sea Dumping Independent Review Panel.
In addition to our technical expertise, Australasian Marine Associates also offers Commercial Divers, who are marine scientists certified to AS2299.
Founding directors of Australasian Marine Associates, Dr Daniel Spooner and Dr Adam Cohen have worked for many of the large engineering consultancy firms. Their breadth of experience is vast and together they aim to offer the best consultancy services at affordable rates.
Dr Adam Cohen PhD
Director
Dr Cohen has 30 years experience in undertaking technical investigations for the design and construction of nearshore and offshore marine infrastructure, as well as project managing the execution of large scale infrastructure projects.
Adam has considerable experience in managing specialist teams in the areas of Port and Harbour development, subsea pipelines, offshore oil and gas exploration, ocean outfall design, dredging and land reclamation.
Adam's previous employment was with Golder Associates, as the Ports, Coasts and Marine Group Manager, Australia and prior to this, Dr Cohen was Customer Sector Group Manager, Coastal and Marine Environment, Southern Region for WorleyParsons.
Work undertaken through the 90's and over the past decade has been throughout Australia, PNG, Torres Strait Islands, Africa, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Trinidad, servicing the offshore oil and gas and CSG industries, mining and metals industry around dredging and Port development, as well as working on desalination, wastewater, recycled water and cooling water and power plants throughout Australia and overseas. Adam holds a current PNG Work Permit.
Adam has specialist technical expertise in oil spill remediation, marine geochemistry, sediment quality investigation and coastal processes studies.
Dr Cohen has conducted numerous marine environmental and physical coastal processes studies for Government Departments, City Councils and private industry and has experience in the tendering and subsequent management of multi-million dollar marine investigations.
Dr Cohen also has specialist skills in managing the design and construct of large scale marine infrastructure projects throughout Australia.
Adam is an ADAS Commercial Diver Level 1, AS2299 and previously held Dive Officer positions during his employment at Golder Associates and WorleyParsons.
Dr Daniel Spooner PhD
Director
Dr Spooner is a marine science consultant that specialises in nearshore coastal processes. He has been involved in a range of research projects and major infrastructure projects in the coastal zone.
He has also worked as a consultant, and in the public service sector. From this experience he has developed a well rounded understanding of the demands and priorities of these sectors.
He has the ability to understand and interpret complex marine science, communicate this at various levels, and apply outcomes for the benefit of marine project management.
Daniel is now focused on developing a service orientated marine science business that enables clients to develop marine projects in compliance with environmental conditions. This is a specialist field that requires a high level of technical knowledge, stakeholder management, and the ability to work in a demanding environment that can include media exposure.
As Managing Director and Principal Marine Scientist at Australasian Marine Associates (AMA) Daniel will be engaged at all levels of project delivery. The primary focus of service delivery is nearshore coastal infrastructure and port capital and maintenance works.
Through custom built teams, assembled from our alliance partners, AMA has the capacity to offer highly skilled and experienced groups of people to deliver outstanding results.
Harry Houridis MSc
Principal Technical Specialist
Harry is a principal level technical specialist and has over 35 years consulting experience having commenced his consulting career in 1989 working with the (late) Dr Jan Watson at the niche consultancy Marine Science and Ecology based in Melbourne.
Over a 20-year period he developed key skills in marine ecology including invertebrate taxonomy of benthic habitats and environmental monitoring of soft sediment, seagrass and temperate reef habitats with additional interests in water and sediment quality.
He has been a Principal level consultant since 2009 and prior to his Technical Director role at RPS (2021–2025) was manager of the Worley Regulatory and Environment Team in Melbourne (2016–2021), Marine Science Practice Manager for the Australia East business of WorleyParsons (2014–2015) and Principal Scientist for the Australia West marine environment business in Perth (2012–2013).
Harry has been a Technical Lead and Project Manager for many projects with responsibility for work execution, resource allocation and client liaison, management of sub-contractors and sub-consultants and technical leadership. His work experience has a strong Australasian focus having worked most of his career in southeast Australia and the Pilbara (WA) with projects completed across all Australian states including the NT.
Harry's technical expertise covers a broad spectrum of environmental and approvals related areas from small technical studies to broader, multi-discipline EIA type studies. He has spent much of his career working across the key industry sectors of transport (ports), hydrocarbons, power, water and mining and more recently in renewables including offshore wind.
Harry is an ADAS Commercial Diver Level 1 and 2 and holds a TBOSIET for working offshore.