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WMC 2000 - The Way it Was

By Florence Cortez

The Western Marine Conference for the year 2000 was hosted my The Marine Aquarist Roundtable of Sacramento last June 23rd through 25th . It took place at the Radisson Inn in the fair city of Sacramento, California.

The goal was to educate the hobbyist in husbandry techniques, in coral propagation techniques, in the forthcoming coral bans, and in the capture and distribution of drug free decorative animals. The means was to invite experts to speak about their line of specialties, to welcome manufacturers, dealers, distributors to show their state-of-the-art wares, to encourage hobbyists to mingle with them, to socialize with fellow hobbyists, to get answers on questions they may have about the animals in their own tanks.

To this end speakers such as Eric Borneman, Stanley Brown, Charles Delbeek, Bob Fenner, Morgan Lister, Jonathan Lowrie, Dana Riddle, Ron Shimek, Rob Toonen, Jim Wolf, and James Wood were invited. They touched on the pragmatic approach to the health of reef fishes, set up of fish only system, the reef system, coral nutrition, sea anemone husbandry, octopus and cuttlefish husbandry, captive breeding of marine invertebrates. Comparison of phytoplankton foods for larval culture, photosynthesis, lighting and its effects on algae. Data on the quantity of fish kept alive in various stages of captivity, from the time they were caught, to the holding tank at source, to transport by air, land, to the importer, the distributor, the pet stores, all the way to the hobbyists. Special efforts were made to help the beginners by providing "Novice Program" as a show of keeping them in mind.

In the end, a panel of speakers graciously answered questions from the audience. Charles Delbeek's slide show of cuttlefish feeding was extraordinarily interesting. It was so entertaining. Raffle session was fun. Food was good.

All throughout, the board of directors and contributors were very successful in achieving their goals. Anson Wong displayed excellent skill in the management of a conference. Garry Chin, the president, function as the queen bee of the whole operation. Karen gathered her friend, her mom and dad to participate as well, Dave Sheehy was instrumental in all matters relative to the speakers. Of course, the work wouldn't be complete without the input of Bryan Clover and her sister-in-law Pam, Bryan Prestwood, Larry Robinson, Dan Card, and Shirley Farrell.

Congratulations to all the participants, speakers, manufacturers, vendors and of course to all the attendees who supported the activities. Without them, the conference wouldn't have been planned to begin with, and without them, it wouldn't have ended the way it did.

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