As I looked out this morning over gentle swells sweeping in against the lava shoreline of the Kona Coast of the Big Island, it was hard to reconcile the peaceful tranquility I observed with the ongoing battles over the resource about which I have been writing. A full day of interviews, observing County Council testimony and exchanging emails with people on both sides of the debate, however, makes it crystal clear West Hawai’i is indeed a battleground. My role in this is as observer, and this trip is a fact-finding mission attempting to answer one simple question: Is the marine aquarium trade here well-managed and sustainable, or is collection for the aquarium trade responsible for, as the most recent resolution seeking to ban the trade statewide claims, the “devastation” of the reefs just beneath those gentle swells? read more

The Marine Aquarium Societies of North America (MASNA) is a non-profit organization composed of local area marine aquarium societies, individual marine aquarists, and corporate partner or sponsor memberships. The benefits for club membership are pretty well understood by most—access to speaker and vendor directories, networking opportunities through the Society Directory, dedicated club space in the forums, banner advertising, the potential to host a MACNA, and more—but many individual aquarists wonder “Why should I become member?” This week’s series of blog posts from the Big Island of Hawai’i is, in my way of thinking, one very good reason, but I’m getting ahead of myself…   read more