Billy Richards
Director of Communications
Billy Richards spent close to two decades at The Oceanic Institute, a non-profit
research organization where some of his cumulative responsibilities
included: serving as assistant to the Institute’s Vice-President of
Program Development in the development of new programs domestic and
international; Research Associate of the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) funded marine shrimp research program; Manager of
the Hawaiian Fishpond Revitalization Project (HFR) which sought to
revitalize ancient Hawaiian fishponds for economic purposes while
maintaining their cultural integrity, and; Manager of The Oceanic
Institute — Ke‘ahuolu, a facility located near Kailua-Kona on the
island of Hawai‘i that serves as a site for the Institute's aquaculture
education and training programs and, which houses the USDA Marine
Shrimp Consortium's Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) shrimp stocks. More
recently in the private sector, he was Vice-President and General
Manager of Hawai‘i High Health Seafood Corporation, the sales and
marketing subsidiary of a large land-based aquaculture operation
located on Kaua‘i. He has been involved with Hawai‘i's voyaging
community since 1975 and has served aboard the voyaging canoes
Hokule‘a, Hawai‘iloa, Makali‘i and Hokualaka‘i. He presently sits as
President of “The Friends of Hokule‘a and Hawai‘iloa”, a non-profit
organization whose mission is to “perpetuate ancient Hawaiian canoe
resources by building, restoring and sharing traditional canoe building
skills”.
