The first was the creation of the MASNA speaks event.  Here’s how it works:

Choose your speaker from our speaker database and MASNA will pay 50% of the Speaker’s actual transportation and room expenses up to $300, for any of these speakers to attend your meeting.

It’s a great way to get some of the MASNA registered speakers to come out to your meeting.  If your club is interested in bringing a speaker in, you have to make a request to Linda Close at MASNASpeaks@masna.org before booking your speaker.  Requests will be taken starting Jan 1, 2010 and will be limited to 24 speakers, so make your request as soon as possible.  More details are on MASNA’s site.

Secondly, MASNA has given out the inaugural scholarship to a student who “has declared a major or has an intent to declare a major in one of the marine sciences.”  The scholarship is for $2500 and a large part of it was provided by Drs. Foster and Smith.

Brita, who grew up in Alaska, spent the summer as an intern with NOAA at the Kodiak Research Laboratory working in the groundfish division. She works with the full-time scientists to evaluate rockfish stocks and life history. She is also designing and conducting research comparing seasonal maturity levels of several commercially valuable rockfish species. This has given her a great opportunity to assess rockfish maturity by operating specialized instruments for histology and microsopy.
Brita fished sockeye salmon commercially for two seasons in Alaska. During this time, she gained insight into the politics and policies of fisheries.

With her imminent degree, Brita hopes to educate people about the ocean’s importance to the global ecosystem and to promote responsible use and protection of marine resources.
Brita spent a quarter in southeast Asia helping the United Nations Environment Programme with post- tsunami mangrove surveys and community forest education, and installed a micro-hydroelectrical system in a Thai village.

Congratulations to Brita and thanks to Drs. Foster and Smith and MASNA for providing a great program!

Here’s some of my favourite photos.  Hopefully it’ll help you get a flavour of what this year’s MACNA was about. More video is coming soon!

Next up.. the ORA setup. Come back soon.

This presentation blew my mind. You force feed the fish until they can learn to eat on their own, or get healthy again. I don’t know why this is so revolutionary to me. I have a cat who’s had jaundice a couple of times. Every time she gets it, she stops eating, which makes a bad situation worse. The solution is to get her to eat. Either by trying new food or by force feeding her. Why wouldn’t fish be the same?

Here’s Kelly’s video. I’ve cut it down to the demonstration portion of the presentation.

Here’s what you missed:

• fish don’t eat for a number of reasons (stress, illness, etc)
• to anethesize your fish, first weigh it, record its weight
• for anesthesia, there’s a drug called MS-222.  It’s available from vets, drug stores or possibly farm supply stores
• You want to administer the anesthesia at 100ppm to a treatment tank.

A lot more reading is available in Kelly’s subforum on Marine Depot.

Update from the Dallas Marine Society.

It’s MS-222 — you can order it here. I was thinking about ordering some, but I wish I had more of an idea what the shelf life was.

She has suggestions for additional items that are worth having in your “fish medicine chest” here.

(link)

That ocean over there? That’s where the action is.

We tried to find strippers trouble last night, but weren’t successful.  But, I did manage to run around in the surf at 11pm.  MACNA starts in an hour and I’m pumped.  I’m gonna get me some seminar action!

And remember, the house always wins.

Suckers.

If you haven’t seen this year’s speaker lineup, here is a short glimpse:

• Julian Sprung
• Scott W. Michael
• Lindsey Kayal
• Anthony Calfo
• Bob Fenner
• Sanjay Joshi
• Matthew Wittenrich

A stellar list indeed. A list that doesn’t include many more presenters and workshop leads.

If you are the unfortunate one not attending, be sure to tune into the blog for our exclusive 3 day runaround. We will include so much material, that your fish’s brain will explode. (Wait, we really don’t want that to happen).

Well, its time again to do a post about the MACNA festival. If you are not in the know, MACNA is the Marine Aquatic Conference of North America. Its the biggest North American industry-driven, elbow greasing conference that allows all types of people to experience the hobby on a whole new level.

This year it is going to be in Atlantic City, NJ, a place where gambling meets reefing. It will be three days of madness, excitement, and free-for-all. You do have the time to purchase your tickets, as it is held on September 25th, 26th, and 27th. But, the tickets will go up in price as the dates near.

This years speaking engagement list includes Anthony Calfo, Bob Fenner, Frank Marini, Martin Moe, Scott Fellman, Jake Adams, and much more.

If that’s not enough, there will be raffles, and exhibitions, and fun activities presented by the industry leaders.

So buy your tickets, head to NJ, and look for us roaming around. It would be fun to meet you all. Plus it will be easy to spot us, two guys wearing our Fragd.it gear!
See you all in September!