WAMAS Winter (annual) Meeting - Jan. 24, 2026 - Dr. Richard Pyle - & Fragfest

[Gatortailale]

This year we are combining our Winter/Annual meeting with Fragfest.  We will vote on club officer positions that up for election (President, Treasurer, and Membership Director); hand out free frags / do white elephant frag exchange; and enjoy a potluck lunch together and hear a presentation by Dr. Richard Pyle.

 

WHO: WAMAS Club Members & Family

WHEN: January 24, 2026

Time:  1:30 - 5:00 pm

WHERE: Green Acres Center, 4401 Sideburn Rd., Fairfax, VA

FOOD:  Potluck lunch

Speaker: Dr. Richard L. Pyle - "Diving Deep into Biodiversity: Leveraging the Latest Technology to Explore Deep Coral Reefs."

 

 

Agenda:
1:30 Sign-in / socialize / frag sales

1:45 Potluck lunch 
2:15 Club business & Election / frag sales 
3:00 Speaker - Dr. Richard Pyle 

4:00 White Elephant frag exchange 
4:45 Raffle!

5:00 Cleanup

 

- Quarterly meeting raffle prizes

- 50/50 cash drawing (benefit WAMAS)

- FREE Frags (from WAMAS Sponsors)

- White Elephant - frag exchange gift table (bring a frag(s), get a frag(s)

        - bring frag(s) & get extra tickets for chance to win frag(s) from frag tables

 

Come celebrate with us at this event.

 

Dr. Richard L. Pyle 

 

 

Title:  Diving Deep into Biodiversity: Leveraging the Latest Technology to Explore Deep Coral Reefs

Abstract:

Global Biodiversity is unambiguously the most valuable resource on Earth for the future of humanity. It provides the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat, likely contains the cures to most (if not all) human diseases, and holds solutions to some of the most important challenges of our time (e.g., removing CO2 from the atmosphere, converting sunlight into chemical energy with 90%+ efficiency, etc.). Global Biodiversity represents the Greatest Library on Earth, containing the accumulated wisdom of billions of years of evolution. At this stage in human history, we are like kindergartners running through the aisles of the Library of Congress, vaguely aware of the enormity of the information surrounding us, but largely oblivious to the value of its contents. Tragically, this Library is burning, with the effects of climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, over-exploitation and other factors converging to drive Earth’s Sixth Great Extinction event. Whenever a species goes extinct, it’s like burning the last copy of a book, forever losing whatever important secrets it contained. After more than 250 years of effort, we’ve only managed to establish 10–20% of the Card Catalog for this Library (i.e., naming and describing species) – let alone reading and understanding their contents. The remaining 80–90% of books in this burning library (undiscovered species) remain entirely unknown to us. Almost by definition, the species we already know about are the easiest for us to find. The vast majority of undiscovered species inhabit parts of the planet that are exceedingly difficult for humans to access.  Oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, and represent 99% of habitable ecological volume. As terrestrial mammals, humans are limited in their ability to explore undersea environments, replying on simple technologies to peek into the shallowest depths, and expensive submersibles and other devices to plumb the abyss. Oceans are Earth’s greatest unexplored frontier.  Coral Reefs are often described as the “rainforests of the sea”, harboring an incredible array of diverse organisms. Although SCUBA has allowed researchers to explore coral-reef habitat down to about 50 meters (150 feet) or so for decades, coral-reef ecosystems extended down to about 200 meters (660 feet) or more. For more than half a century, a team of researchers at Bishop Museum in Honolulu have pioneered the use of new technologies to explore coral reefs. This included the use of early SCUBA and underwater photography in the mid-20th century, revolutionizing the application of mixed-gas diving and close-circuit rebreathers for coral-reef exploration starting in the 1980s and continuing today, and the use of advanced robots designed for space exploration and cutting-edge DNA sequencing techniques in recent years. Bishop Museum is about to launch the Center for the Exploration of Coral Reef Ecosystems (EXCORE), which aims to leverage decades of pioneering scientific exploration and discovery to fundamentally transform how coral-reef habitats and their inhabitants are documented. Humanity is in a race to document biodiversity before its lost forever, and there has never been greater urgency for us to pick up the pace. There is no time to lose.

 

Bio: 

Dr. Richard L. Pyle is the Director of the Center for the Exploration of Coral Reef Ecosystems (EXCORE) and Senior Curator of Ichthyology at Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. He received his PhD in Zoology in 2003, and his primary research interest is to explore and document Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (coral-reef habitat at depths of 30-200 meters). He has led and supported over 80 exploratory research expeditions around the tropical Indo-Pacific, with particular emphasis on the discovery of new species of fishes and other organisms, and documenting patterns of biogeography and depth distributions. Richard’s other focus is the development of computer database systems, primarily to manage systematic and biogeographic information. He has published over 220 scientific, technical and popular articles and chapters on ichthyology, diving technology, biodiversity data and saltwater aquarium fishes; given over 270 public presentations (including two TED talks); posted dozens of blogs (including one of the first-ever real-time scientific expedition blogs in 1997); has been featured in over 50 film projects (IMAX, National Geographic, BBC, Discovery Channel, and others); has been profiled in over 50 published articles (including the cover-feature of Science); and has served in dozens of roles for organizations focused on research, exploration, technology and international data standards. He also recently completed his 18-year term as a Commissioner and Counselor for the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), and he conceived, developed and maintains ZooBank (zoobank.org), among other biodiversity data systems. As a lifelong saltwater aquarist, Richard’s passion for fishes began with collecting and keeping fishes in his home aquariums.

 

Sponsors On Site, Selling

Coral Candy Aquaculture @Coral Candy Aquaculture

Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine @johnnybv
Vendors On Site, Selling

@Combat Corals

@VA Coral Cabin

 

Members On Site, Selling

@gws3

 

Special thanks to theses sponsors. Please support them & say thanks next time you shop with them.

WAMAS Platinum Sponsors 

- Air, Water & Ice

- Avast Marine
- Blue Ribbon Koi

- Champion Lighting & Supply
- ChemiPure (Boyd Enterprises)

- Coral Candy Aquaculture

- Exotic Reef Creations

- Fintastic Aquariums of Maryland
- Frank's Tanks
- Reed Mariculture (Reef Nutrition)
- Reef eScape

- Supreme Reefs

WAMAS Banner-Only Sponsors 
- Bulk Reef Supply

- Cobalt Aquatics

- Coral Magazine
- Jellyfish Art
- Maxspect
- Two Little Fishies

 

** INTERESTED in helping make this event a success - please send an email to officers@wamas.org or send a message to me or any of the officers and let us know you are interested in helping.

 

 

 

Fintastic.webp

[Gatortailale]

Officer nominations for the 2026 elections of 3 positions is up in the Member News section -  WAMAS Elections - 2026 (Nominations Thread)

 

[Gatortailale]

We are working to get a list of vendor donated frags posted soon.

 

In members-only forum is a thred on signing up to bring a potluck dish.

 

Below are a few pictures from the frag event and potluck last year. 

 

[Gatortailale]

Rich Pyle's talk title and abstract has been added to original post.

[gastone]

Over winter break I made up some frags from my school tanks.  Typically I have the students do this, but I got busy in December with SOL testing.  

 

3 neon cabbage

Various zoanthids

2 bright rbta isolated 

1 minty rhodactis

1 tequila sunrise rhodactis 

 

This will all be donated to the member frag table.

 

I'm also planning on bringing a frag of Koji wada nepthea.  I keep it under blueish lighting, but this really shines if you keep it under 6.5k or similar lighting.

[Gatortailale]

Forecast shows the snow holding off until later Saturday night, so right now we are still planning to hold the meeting.  We will also look into adjusting the agenda and see how we can speed things up to try to get everyone out sooner and back home.

 

We will update all social media platforms and send email from the Forums if updates or changes need to be made.  

 

[gastone]

Unfortunately Dmitry from @VA Coral Cabinwon't be able to make it in person.  He's very concerned about the storm and is busy in his shop doing preparations.  He feels bad, but very generously donated 20 frags (blastomussa merletti, pavona, turbinaria, some palys, et al).  Looking forward to seeing everyone.

[Gatortailale]

Meeting is on - latest weather forecast shows snow not arriving until 11:00 pm tonight.

 

We have over 125 vendor donated frags (SPS, LPS, Zoas, Softies, Euphyllia) from: 

- Blue Ribbon Koi

- Coral Candy Aquaculture

- Graham (GW3)

- Fragshack - NJ

- Top Shelf Aquatics

 

* Attendees get a free ticket for a vendor frag; bring a potluck dish, get an extra ticket for a free vendor frag.  

* Extra vendor frags; and member donated frags, will be available in the WAMAS Fundraiser White Elephant Fragfest Exchange (for a small fee)

   - All proceeds go to WAMAS to help make events like this possible.

 

We also have the following sponsors/vendors/members selling frags:

- Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine
- Combat Corals 
- Graham (GW3) will be selling frags and typically will pre-sale via the WAMAS forums. 

- Fragshack - NJ

 

If you aren’t a member and you’d like to join, do it in advance of the meeting at https://wamas.org/forums/join.php/   You can join at the door, but we don’t want to create a backlog for our volunteer door checkers. 

 

We look forward to seeing everyone there!

[gastone]

Donations from Dmitry @VA Coral Cabin as well as stuff from my school tanks that my students have propagated as as from my personal tanks.  (Ignore the misspellings...I'm going to throw the second lady under the bus.  I dictated as I was bagging so she could write the names)

 

[Gatortailale]

What a fantastic meeting and it was great to see over 85 member-attendees come out & enjoy a great lecture, feast on the potluck food, and go home with several frags to add to their collection. I reckon we were fortunate the weather held off so that we could go forward with event. 

 

Thank you Dr. Richard Pyle for taking the time to speak to our club.  We are fortunate that we know a guy with connections to make it possible, @copps 😉

 

On behalf of myself and all the Officers + membership, we appreciate all the contributions from our fantastic sponsors - over 135 vendor donated frags - as well as the 150+ member donated frags. Thank you Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine @johnnybv

 @Coral Candy Aquaculture  @Combat Corals Top Shelf Aquatics, & Frag Shack from NJ.  Amazing! 🙏

And thanks to Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine, Combat Corals, & Frag Shack from NJ for setting up a tank with all those tempting corals in your booth displays, even with snow in the forecast. 

 

In addition,  I want to thank all the members who answered our request for help in bringing a dish to share in the potluck or coming early/ staying late to help with the room setup & cleanup. Appreciate everyone engaging and making WAMAS community special to apart of.

 

Special thanks to the WAMAS Officers, especially the newly elected who jumped into the fire and worked their butts off for their first time to put on the meeting, as wellas Dan who helped at the welcome desk.   And thanks to Our President Emeritus, Tom & Doug, who continue to donate their time to help the club. 🙏  

 

In closing thank you Garrett & Chris for your efforts working with our sponsors and vendors to source frags & developing a plan to get frags to our members & speed us on our ways. 🍻