The Greater Seattle Aquarium Society is a non profit corporation, organized under the laws of the State of Washington. The primary purposes of the society are to promote interest in the aquarium hobby, and to provide a forum for the exchange of information among aquarium hobbyists.
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Our February speaker is Lawrence Kent who will share with us the presentation he made last summer as the keynote speaker at the American Cichlid Association's annual convention -- "Holy Grail Cichlids, Friends, and Other Fish:Two West African Stories."
The presentation will cover his recent trip to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and other forays into the wild world of Nigeria. He found some interesting fish in both of these strange and rarely visited countries, and not just cichlids but also characins, mormyrids, and catfish. If you like African fish or just funny stories, please come!
Lawrence has been a grateful member of GSAS for 13 years. He has made fish presentations in twenty cities, collected fish in 23 countries, and published two dozen articles in Tropical Fish Hobbyist, Cichlid News, Buntbarsche Bulletin, and very recently the German magazine DATZ. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of Amazonas magazine. Lawrence keeps 27 tanks at home filled with African cichlids, Southeast Asian labyrinths, and self-collected native fish.
Lee Newman, of Vancouver BC, has been keeping and studying freshwater fish for over 45 years, especially the geophagines from South America. Currently the Curator of Tropics with the Vancouver Aquarium, Lee is also an award-winning photographer and writer, contributing over sixty published articles.
Since earning his full cave diver certification in 2010, he has been a little distracted by the topic of the talk he will present for us this month:
Cenote Fishes of the Yucatan Peninsula
is an overview of a very complex ecosystem. The peninsula is built of very porous limestone and therefore cannot hold surface waters such as rivers and lakes. However, that porosity has allowed rain and atmospheric carbon dioxide to hollow out the layers of rock below giving rise to an intricate network of flooded cave passages. Cave ceiling collapses form cenotes and exposes the ground water to sunlight and the surrounding forest. Residing in each cenote is an aquatic community - including fishes. The presentation looks at the geology of the peninsular and the effects of glaciation on the flooded cave passages - now a Mecca for cave divers worldwide. It also looks at how the fishes got there and why there are differences in the aquatic community structure of the cenotes. Given such a unique ecosystem, the presentation also covers some of the efforts being made to conserve the cenotes and their fishes.
Thanks so much to all the folks who bought and sold at our 2019 General Auction. The auctions are the club's primary funding, so your bidding is helping us bring more big speakers, fund the huge home show coming up in February, and pay for the BAP and HAP awards coming up this month.
A special shout-out to our local stores who donated product, even with the weird fall schedule we had this year. Please let them know by visiting and purchasing from them this holiday season and the upcoming year.
We've had some requests from people who couldn't make it to our auction or meetings to buy our nice new T-shirts (design by Ryan Henry Ward of Seattle mural fame). For a few bucks extra, we'll ship you one. Go to https://gsas.org/t-shirt/ to order.