Another great Marine Breeding Initiative Workshop!

[Harlequinmania]

Click through to see the images.

I personally want to thank Tal Sweet and the rest of the Marine Breeding Initiative staff that put together this year's Workshop.  They did an excellent job pulling everything together from selecting speakers, arranging raffle items, the great noon meal, and the exemplary barbecue meal and get-together on Sunday at Tal's house.

Speakers Dan Underwood, Todd Gardner, Richard Ross, and Eric Cassiano all gave invaluable talks to attentive listeners and throughout the weekend made themselves available to answer questions from attendees. I also want to recognize and thank the MASNA Speaks program as their support allowed Rich to attend the Workshop this year.

Reef Nutrition and LiveAquaria.com provided gift bags for each attendee which included various sizes of APBreed's Top Dressed Otohime, Sera Marin Granules, Marine Chips, Instant Ocean Brine Shrimp, Reef Accelerator, and Marine Stabilizer.

Raffle items included items from Reef Nutrition, Algagen, Melev's Reef, Rod's Food, and other businesses.

I personally believe the most important part of this yearly event is the information exchange that happens throughout the weekend. Bringing together people with very different backgrounds and breeding programs (from pipefish to cephalopods to live foods) allows people to discuss what they are doing, form more personal relationships, and learn new things from one another.

I would like to leave you with a couple photos from the weekend:

Dan Underwood discusses his seahorse breeding program.

Todd Gardner talks about his work at Long Island Aquarium.

Richard Ross lectures on caphalopods.

Eric Cassiano talks about Success and complications in species-specific embryological and larval rearing, and future projects.

The breeding awards were handed out just after lunch.

Everyone had a great time at the after-workshop meal at the Moose Preserve.

The Sunday barbecue was excellent and Tal was a great host!

If you are interested in breeding anything marine-related, I highly suggest attending workshops like this one. I am looking forward to next year's program. Keep up the great work MBI!

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