Jay Hemdal Live

Public Aquarium Resources

There are four very important resources for aquarists interested in public aquariums.  The first is the venerable public aquarium journal, Drum and Croaker.  The following is a description of D&C from the web site:

Drum and Croaker is a non-peer-reviewed journal that has acted as an "informal organ" for public aquarium professionals since 1958. It has a long history of providing a forum for the exchange of basic information - and occasionally humor. It was conceived in the back seat of a car in 1957, and has remained erratic and irregular throughout most of it's life, characteristics it shares with a colleague or two. The original name, "Grunt and Crappie" was rejected for scatological reasons...but it was perhaps no surprise that the the first call for papers then heralded the periodical as "an irresponsible journal...by undedicated aquarists".

     While this material is not peer-reviewed, there is a LOT of peer-pressure placed on the authors so the material is usually very accurate.  The journal issues are not really indexed by search engines, so to find articles, it is usually best to go to the web page where the issues are archived:  

  http://www.colszoo.org/internal/drumcroaker.htm

     Not every paper will be of interest to home aquarists, but there is plenty of interest for intermediate and advanced aquarists - and the material is often unique to this journal and not found elsewhere.

    The second resource is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums web site, in particular the job postings page.  If you want to work for a public aquarium, you should start here:

http://www.aza.org/JobListings/

    Once you have a job with a public aquarium, you might consider attending the "Regional Aquatics Workshop" held annually at a different aquarium each year.  The first RAW meeting was held in Toledo, Ohio in 1989 and was attended by 20 aquarists.  The most recent meeting was at the Atlantis Marine World on Long Island and had perhaps ten times that many attendees.  Typically, the only non-public aquarium folks who attend are aquarium vendors.  The link for the 2009 conference is here:

http://www.rawconference.org/

    The last resource is perhaps the best, but the hardest to access.  There is a public aquarium listserve that hooks up public aquarists from around the world.  Because the membership is so large (perhaps over 600 active members) new members need to be vetted by somebody who already has access to the listserve.  If you work for a public aquarium, just ask your boss or supervisor to learn how to subscribe to "Aquaticinfo".

The views expressed on this weblog are mine alone and do not

necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

 

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The Public Aquarium Side of Aquarium Keeping

I am launching this web log as a resource for home aquarists to glean information from the public aquarium side of aquarium keeping. 

Not all public aquarium work translates to home aquariums, but much of it does.  Even information that does not directly apply to your home aquariums may still be of interest simply due to the shared attraction we all have with the aquatic realm.  Future posts will include news from various public aquariums, synopsis of journal articles and conference proceedings, as well as serving as an "idea incubator" for my own work.

To begin, I think we should define just what an aquarist is.  Although definitions may vary depending on whom you talk to, these excerpts from my book Advanced Marine Aquarium Techniques works for most people:

An Aquarium Hobbyist is traditionally the "home aquarist."  Anyone who maintains aquariums for the simple pleasure of working with them can be considered a hobbyist.  ....  A wide variation is seen in the relative experience levels of hobbyists.  The length of time spent in the hobby often (but not always) increases the hobbyist's knowledge.  A person who has bred clownfish for only two years may be a wealth of information.  Another could have stubbornly continued to make the same basic mistakes for forty years, and not be any more knowledgeable than when they started.

A Professional Aquarist is somebody who earns a living through captive aquatic animal and plant husbandry.  Their salary can come from either the private or the public sector.  A Private Professional aquarist would include commercial fish breeders, pet store employees, authors and lecturers, or manufacturers.  They may have a specific area of focus, such as a fancy discus breeder.  Expenses must be less than the revenue received from the sale of produced goods, royalty payments, etc.  Should expenses not be met for an extended period, the private professional aquarist is forced to discontinue their activities.

A Public Aquarist is a person who works in the animal husbandry department of an aquarium that is open for visitation by the public.  Some confusion may be seen with those aquarists who work for private, for-profit corporations such as the Sea World parks.  Rather than categorizing these people as private aquarists, they are better grouped with the public aquarists.  The work they do is virtually identical, and in this discussion, the term "public" does not refer to the not-for-profit status of the organization.  Rather, it refers to the attendance of these facilities by the public.

It is entirely possible for an aquarist to belong to more than one of these groups over time.  One example is the home aquarist who later acquires a position as a public aquarist.  A person can even belong to more than one group at the same time.  This is seen in the public aquarist who is also a hobbyist by virtue of having an aquarium at home as a leisure activity.

One unifying theme for all these groups is an interest in, and a respect for, aquatic creatures.  This is most evident in the aquarium hobbyist whose pastime is chosen solely due these factors.  This point is still very important to professional and public aquarists.  There are many more lucrative and less challenging ways to earn a living than being paid to work with captive aquatic organisms.  Obviously, these people have allowed factors other than money to influence their career choices.

Image: Maculosus or Map Angelfish, Pomacanthus maculosus. Photo © Jay Hemdal.