Gatortailale February 18, 2011 Share February 18, 2011 WAMAS SPRING MEETING - Kilmer Middle School, Vienna, VA - April 10, 2011 (Sunday) The Spring Meeting of The Washington Area Marine Aquarist Society (WAMAS) will be on Sunday, April 10, 2011 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. at Kilmer Middle School, 8100 Wolftrap Road, Vienna, VA 22182. Special Guest and Highlights: - Speaker: Ret Talbot- Topic - see below - Artist: Karen Talbot - displaying some of her art prints. One will be in the Raffle! Along with lots of frag swapping and a great raffle, this is sure to be a meeting NOT to miss! For further information on the WAMAS Spring Meeting, visit our web site http://www.wamas.org/ Who: WAMAS (Washington D.C. Area Marine Aquarist Society) When: April 10, 2011 (Sunday) Time: 1:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M. (EDT) Where: Kilmer Middle School Auditorium 8100 Wolftrap Road Vienna, Virginia 22182 Cost: Members - FREE Non-members - $5.00 [WAMAS Annual Membership = $20 - Individual; $35 - Family; $10 - Educators; Free - Students] Agenda Will be posted soon - looking to start by 1:00 to get you home earlier than a Saturday meting. Miscellaneous - food & drinks provided - Raffle prizes - Win art print by Karen Talbot - Win a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Saltwater Aquariums - Avast Marine K-1 Kalk Stirrer kit - Fantastic Frags Gift Certificate - Mr. Coral Gift Certificates - Aquaholics Gift Certificates - pumps, refractometer, and test kits from Premium Aquatics - A yellow porites colony and a 3" purple montipora verrucosa (?) colony from SaltwaterWorx. * more to be posted soon Bio: Ret Talbot Ret Talbot is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer who frequently reports on the marine aquarium industry. Most often addressing topics at the intersection of the hobby, science andRet Talbot is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer who frequently reports on the marine aquarium industry. Most often addressing topics at the intersection of the hobby, science and conservation, Talbot is a strong advocate for a robust and sustainable marine aquarium trade where aquarists serve a critical role on the front line of reef conservation. As a marketing consultant and editor, he has worked with many leading marine aquarium companies to promote that vision. When he isn't writing about saltwater aquaria (or tending to one of his five tanks), Ret is often fly fishing in either salt- or freshwater and writing about conservation issues related to angling and healthy fisheries. Trained as a writer, Ret holds degrees in writing from both Wheaton College (Massachusetts) and the University of St. Andrews (Scotland). He has travelled the world as a mountaineering and fishing guide, as well as a writer seeking out stories in some of the most remote and inaccessible regions on the face of the Earth. His aquarium-related books include The Complete Idiot's Guide to Saltwater Aquariums (September 2009) and Coral (spring 2011). His aquarium articles can be found in print publications such as CORAL Magazine and Tropical Fish Hobbyist or online at Suite101.com, where he is the saltwater aquarium feature writer. Ret and his wife Karen, an artist known for her fish paintings, split their time between Laguna Beach, California and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Proposed Topic: There is a lot of talk about sustainability in the saltwater aquarium hobby these days. For much of the past year, writer and photographer Ret Talbot has travelled for CORAL Magazine to many places where marine aquarium fishes are claimed to be collected sustainably. So how sustainable is the trade? What is the future of wild collection and source country mariculture? How does a marine aquarium fishery affect local fishers in remote villages in developing island nations? How can aquarists use their purchasing power to impact socio-economic development and reef conservation? From Papua New Guinea to Hawaii, the Solomon Islands to Belize, Talbot has interviewed fishers, industry leaders, government officials, and anti-trade advocates in an effort to get beyond the rumors, rants and anecdotes. This talk shares some of those experiences and gives the average hobbyist a rare glimpse into the inner-workings of the collection side of the trade. Of particular note, this talk will share the latest on post-larval collection for tank-raised fishes, and it will be one of the first talks to cover the Solomon Islands, where Ret spent the month of March researching the trade. Directions: - Here's a map from Mapquest Map Link 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 - Air, Water & Ice - Aquaholics - Avast Marine - Blue Ribbon Koi - Dr. Mac's Pacific East Aquaculture - Fantastic Frags - Fiji Coral Direct - Fins & Feathers - LiveWire Aquatics - The Marine Scene - Mr. Coral - Petland - Premium Aquatics - Reef eScape - SaltwaterWorx - www.FishNReef.com * Save your receipts from our sponsors and get raffle prize tickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatortailale March 4, 2011 Author Share March 4, 2011 By Ret Talbot Excerpt from the March/April 2011 Issue of CORAL Tank-Raised Tangs, Triggers & Others: Aquaculture Makes A Quantum Leap Forward On any given day you can find between 135,000 and 165,000 animals—species that are decidedly not indigenous to the American southeast—nestled between Carl’s Home Center and the now-defunct Franklin Super Market on West Old Andrew Johnson Highway in downtown Jefferson City, Tennessee. The vast majority are pomacentrids—clownfishes and some damsels—but there are others. On this particular day, a hard winter afternoon with stiff angled sunlight drawing sharp shadows across monochromatic brick buildings, I am greeted by colorful swaths of butterflyfishes, blennies, gobies, cardinalfishes, and a host of other exotic, reef-associated, tropical marine fishes. This is certainly not what one would expect in this working class town of just over 8,000 people, with its antebellum Baptist college and a median household income of barely $23,500. But here it is. Sustainable Aquatics is the reason coral reef fishes often outnumber people 20,000 to one in Jefferson City. “Most people have no idea what goes on here,” Matthew Carberry, president of Sustainable Aquatics, tells me as we enter the three-story brick building at the heart of the company’s rapidly expanding campus. Carberry grew up in this town, but even many of the kids from his high school class still only know the building as the old Jefferson City headquarters of the Appalachian Electric Cooperative. So what does go on in this old brick building with a new facade facing the street? Simply stated, Sustainable Aquatics is a saltwater fish hatchery providing captive-bred and tank-raised aquarium animals to the international marine aquarium trade. This, in and of itself, does not make it unique, although the speed with which the young company has moved to the second spot in the North American marine ornamental hatchery industry certainly has captured the attention of many observers. Continue story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco March 26, 2011 Share March 26, 2011 bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco March 30, 2011 Share March 30, 2011 bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco April 5, 2011 Share April 5, 2011 Looking at a great meeting coming up, make sure you are there! DVR the Masters!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami April 5, 2011 Share April 5, 2011 Added some raffle items to the top post. Avast, Fantastic Frags, & Mr. Coral Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami April 7, 2011 Share April 7, 2011 Added Aquaholics gift certificates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco April 8, 2011 Share April 8, 2011 This weekend, don't forget!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami April 9, 2011 Share April 9, 2011 Added two coral colonies to be donated by SaltwaterWorx for the raffle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco April 10, 2011 Share April 10, 2011 last minute bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami April 10, 2011 Share April 10, 2011 Lot's of raffle prizes for a Spring meeting. Maybe today's your day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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