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WAMAS Spring Meeting - Chris Turnier, Coral Farming in the Islands of Fiji


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Sunday, April 26, 2015

Time: 1:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M. (EST)
Where: North Bethesda Middle School
8935 Bradmoor Dr
Bethesda, MD 20817
 
Speaker: Chris Turnier (coral guru)
Topic: We'll get it to you soon.

 

Agenda

1:00 - 2:45 Sign-in / socialize
2:45 - 3:00 Club business / Speaker Introduction
3:00 - 4:15 Speaker: Chris Turnier

4:15 - 4:30 Break
4:30 - 5:00 Raffle!

Miscellaneous
- food & drinks provided

Coral Farming in the Islands of Fiji

The mariculture of corals is a science that has come a long way.  It requires an amazing amount of coordination and time to do it correctly.  From site and broodstock selection to fragging and planting techniques, parasite prevention, site and system maintenance, government fishery meetings,  and export documents and so on... you are part weatherman, human-seal, inventor, hunter/gatherer, janitor, gardener, politician, plumber, artist and packer extraordinaire.  Most believe farming corals is done to take pressure off of the wild populations of corals on the worlds reefs, and for re-populating damaged reefs.  It is this and much more.  Allow me to take you into the processes and ideals that drive those to farm corals in an incredibly unpredictable ocean
 

 

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Bio of Chris Turnier
Chris Turnier isn't a house hold name in the aquarium hobby, but his contributions to this hobby have been significant nonetheless.  He along with others at Flying Fish Express were the first to create the online craze of WYSIWYG corals and fish, in addition he was the first to attempt identifying corals being sold online down to a species level.  He also made quite a few mariculture advancements to further the success of coral farming in Fiji.  Chris has worked in every aspect of the aquarium industry from retail and wholesale to distributor and supplier and has loved every minute of it!  Chris is always striving to keep the hobby what it should be - educational, environmentally responsible and fun!
 
Chris grew up with art in his blood and a love for fish in his heart.   He spent his childhood keeping various fresh water aquariums, fishing with his grandfather and free diving and spearfishing off the Southern California coast.  Earning a Bachelor's degree in fisheries from Humboldt State University in Northern California, he graduated and took a job that moved him back to Southern California.  There he worked for the very first online tropical fish store, Flying Fish Express.  After 5 years at Flying Fish Express, he and his family moved to Colorado where the humble beginnings of Reefer Madness took place.  The success of Reefer Madness took him back to Southern California and for 5 years the company sold the most amazing sustainably collected wild corals, maricultured and aquacultured corals the industry had seen up to that point.  It was right about that time when a dream job became available in the islands of Fiji.  And so in 2007 he and his family moved to Fiji and managed Walt Smith International coral farm.  Four wonderful years went by in Fiji and he was then offered a position at Sustainable Aquatics in TN.  After several years as the VP of Sales and Marketing at this burgeoning aquaculture company he then moved onto something that has been pulling at him for his entire life - art, Fish Eye Fine Art to be exact.  There he takes his knowledge of all things fishy and creates underwater watercolors, and takes 120 year old barnwood and transforms it into animals of all shapes and sizes.
 

 

Directions:
- NOTE: The school is just inside the north edge of the beltway near Old Georgetown Road.

Here's a map from Mapquest

http://mapq.st/5-kx2S5Hzr

Special thanks to theses sponsors. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them. You can find their website address by visiting their forum or the sponsor page on the WAMAS website.

 

WAMAS Gold Sponsors 

Air, Water & Ice
Avast Marine
Blue Ribbon Koi
Dr. Mac's Pacific East Aquaculture
Exotic Reef Creations
- Pimped Out Aquariums
Reef eScape

WAMAS Silver Sponsors
Artfully Acrylic & Incredible Corals
Charm City Corals
Cobalt Aquatics
FishnReef.com
LRS Reef Frenzy
The Marine Scene
Petland
Premium Aquatics
Reed Mariculture (Reef Nutrition)
Quantum Reefs
Reed Mariculture

Supreme Reefs
* Save your receipts from our sponsors and get raffle prize tickets

 

Vendors on site:

Exotic Reef Creations
Pacific East Aquaculture (Dr. Mac)

 

WAMAS Members selling/trading (table display)
Dave S.

 
Raffle Items include:

Incredible Corals Gift Certificates

Premium Aquatics Gift Certificates

Avast Marine Gift Certificates

Tunze 9002 nano DOC skimmer from Quantum Reefs

Fish food from Cobalt Aquatics

Food from Reef Nutrition

Frozen food from LRS Reef Frenzy

Substrate from Petland

Frag packs from Pacific East Aquaculture (Dr. Mac)

Nutitional Supplements from Docseco.com

Typhoon III Extreme RO/DI from Air, Water & Ice

 

More coming! Stay tuned!

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  • 2 months later...

Raffle donation from Quantum Reefs: Tunze 9002 skimmer.

 

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From Cobalt Aquatics: Fifteen canisters of their flake food products ! (multi chances to win!)

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Wow! We received a generous donation from a non-sponsor that dbartco bumped into at Max a couple weeks ago. From docseco.com, we received two product sample sets that we will raffle off at Sunday's meeting. Two lucky winners will receive Doc's Eco Bytes (live phytoplankton), Doc's Eco Matter (gutloaded live copepods and rotifers) and a bottle of Doc's Eco Egg Brew. For more information about Doc's products, please visit www.docseco.com.

 

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Typhoon III Extreme from Gold Sponsor Air, Water & Ice.

aeb870d6d990ad717fef072e7283e39f.jpg

 

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