About

Built on experience.
Not guesswork.

Aquatic Strategy is a specialist consultancy for public aquariums and aquatic attractions. We work with operators, investors, developers, and leadership teams who need practical expertise, not just another report that gathers dust.

Joe Lavery, founder of Aquatic Strategy

Hi, I'm Joe.

I started Aquatic Strategy because I kept seeing the same problem: organisations with genuinely complex challenges being advised by people who'd never actually done the job. Consultants who could produce a polished report, but had never dealt with a life support failure at 2am, sat across the table from a zoo licensing inspector, or sourced livestock across three countries on a tight deadline.

I've spent the last twenty years working in and around public aquariums — as an aquarist, curator, project developer, and as the person accountable when things went wrong. I've opened new sites, helped to turn around existing sites, and supported the acquisition and sale of aquarium attractions across the UK and Europe.

Aquatic Strategy is, deliberately, a one-person consultancy. When you work with me, you get me — not a team of junior associates working from a methodology I wrote years ago. Every piece of work is handled personally, and the advice is grounded in what I've actually seen work, in real facilities, with real budgets and real teams.

If you think I can help, I'd love to talk.

Joe Lavery Founder & Principle Consultant
Aquatic Strategy
Our Approach

How we
work

01

Diagnose

Every engagement starts with understanding the status quo for ourselves — not what the last report said, not what the team thinks. We do our own work to identify root causes so that what follows is based on reality, not assumption.

02

Design

With that understanding, you'll get honest assessments, not diplomatic waffle. Particularly important in compliance and acquisition work, where the wrong advice can be considerably more expensive than the right advice.

03

Implement

We put it into practice with a focus on leaving your site more capable than we found it. Solutions are designed around how your operation actually runs, so your team can own and sustain them — not to create a permanent need for external input.

04

Verify

Finally, we validate performance in practice. Whether it's a one-off project or a twelve-month engagement, we focus on how things are actually operating — not how they were designed or expected to operate.

Think we might
be able to help?

Tell us what you're dealing with. No pitch, no obligation — just an honest conversation about whether we're the right fit.

Get in Touch