The Banggai Rescue Project

[Hilary]

I'm surprised I haven't seen a post about the Banggai Rescue Project, especially since the three principle team members - Ret Talbot, Karen Talbot and Matt Pedersen - are all recent visitors/speakers at WAMAS meetings. It's an interesting concept - they plan to document the current situation facing the Banggai as well as develop new captive breeding protocols.

 

The Banggai Rescue Project

[Hilary]

Update - today they made the minimum funding ($10,000) for the publisher to commit to producing the book. Given my one futile attempt at saving banggai babies I'm looking forward to the results of their research.

[Coral Hind]

I didn't realize that they were so threatened. A decline of 89% seems really bad!! I hope the project is successful.

[Hilary]

Apparently because they mouth brood they stay within a limited area. Overfish that limited area, and we have a problem.

[mpedersen]

Hey, thanks for making it known guys! I should point out a couple key clarifying points on commonly misunderstood aspects of the project. First, out of the 4 team members publicly acknowledged so far, only Ret Talbot is going to Banggai, embedded with the scientific team. There are actually a few more contributors to this project, all PhDs, who are going on the expedition. Hitting our funding goal of 25K has really invigorated the team, because we now know we have a green light once the Kickstarter funding period ends on April 8th. I'm not sure where 10K came from, but we did get a 10K pledge that helped push us into "funded' territory a few days ago. Backers are still signing up - we just received another $3500 pledge, which has now pushed us past $30,000.

 

Which leads me to the second aspect - this isn't a "charity", nor are we looking for "donations". I'd like to remind folks of the great rewards you get when you pledge; things like first run signed copies of the book, your name in the book, Karen Talbot art, and tons of other options. Heck, a 5K pledge gets crazy amounts of stuff PLUS pays for Ret (or maybe myself) to come give a talk about the project at any venue of the donor's choosing. 10K gets us both (plus tons of other stuff along the way too). That's the really cool part about Kickstarter...it's basically putting a creative idea out there and seeing if there's enough critical mass to actually make it happen.

 

We have 8 days left to make it happen - I can't say I've seen many (if any) chances for ANYONE in the aquarium hobby to get in on the ground floor on a project like this. We'd love to see your support (and thanks if you've already become a backer on Kickstarter). We're going to keep folks updated on the project website at Banggai-Rescue.com, and if you're a Kickstarter Backer, you'll get updates that route too ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/603466482/the-banggai-rescue-project )

 

 

Thanks all - I look forward to the breeding aspects of the project - I really hope to provide a refined, modern approach to the captive breeding of the Banggai Cardinalfish! Stay tuned!

[Hilary]

Thanks Matt! I'm excited about the project and look forward to hearing more about what you learn.