President’s Message – February 2012

Happy Birthday, Brooklyn Aquarium Society! February 14th is our birthday when we turn 101 years old. We had a great time at our birthday party with a beautiful fish birthday cake. We had a special birthday gift with  several memberships through Amazon Local. Many new members signed up using that unique method.

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For our 101th Birthday event, we had Peter Warny as our guest speaker. Pete’s topic for the evening was “Visiting Various City & State Aquaria.” Peter’s talk went into environmental pollutants and what they do to fish, turtles and frogs. He also discussed many ways to combat the detrimental effects of pollution. Peter travels around the country to assist Health and Wildlife centers identify and battle water and ground pollutants. It was a real eye opener for us and we thank him for informing us of these problems.

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Next month our guest speaker is an old favorite; Tony Vargas! Tony is an author, lecturer & aquatic photographer. His topic for our March 9th event will be “Successful Reef Aquariums Around The World & How They Got That Way.”  Tony has a new book out entitled, “The Coral Reef Aquarium: From Inception to Completion.” Purchase it through our website and get a nice discount. The book sells for $45 at Drs. Fosters & Smith; via the BAS website, it’s $33.71.

ORDER HERE >> The Coral Reef Aquarium: From Inception to Completion

Once purchased, bring it into the event and Tony will autograph it for you. So come on down and meet with us on March 9 at 7:30 PM.  As always, there is free parking and free refreshments.

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We will be planning a bus trip to Long Island Aquarium & Exhibition Center, Riverhead, NY. We are looking at Saturday July 28, 2012. Anyone interested in attending should please let me know at the March event.

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I am asking for your help and support. If you want to see different speakers or try different things, please let me know. The elected officials of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society are here to serve YOU! Please let us know what you want and why. It would be helpful to everyone. It is important that you visit and patronize our sponsors. It goes full circle, by helping them, they are also helping you as hobbyists and everyone is helping the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, so help us, help you!

For more info please call our BAS Hotline at (718) 837-4455.

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On a more personal note – Any member who desires to attend a Board meeting, which are held at the Education Center of the New York Aquarium on the 1st Friday of the month, please notify me at (718) 238-1792 by the Tuesday previous to the meeting.

Joe Graffagnino
President