Hey-

Maybe I can shed some light, as a Zoo employee.

When the mayor announced the aquarium money it took everybody totally by surprise, since there were no plans (as far as any of us rank and file knew) to build an aquarium. Development plans at the zoo right now are 1) re-developing Australia-Nocturnal, opening sometime this spring or summer, 2) reopening the Northern Forest lodge that burnt down, (nearly done) 3) re-developing the Tropical Asia/Elephant building (design concept phase 4) re-developing the old conservatory (design concept) and 5) re-developing the North Gate for a big arctic and maybe antarctic exhibit, which might include marine animals. That also is in very early stages.

That being said, apparently part of the plans for the Australia- Creatures of the Night building do include a reef or some kind of tropical saltwater tank. You might remember there was a small saltwater tank in there with urchins, damsels and a few other things. They want to do something bigger. I'm not sure where those plans are at but the keeper who used to take care of that small tank is very keen on going bigger, as is the curator of live exhibits.

I think it would be very cool to have reef keepers from the community involved. We already have an infrastructure for this through our animal care volunteers program. It would be good for the zoo, as well- some of their reef keeping techniques are dated, in my opinion.

Should I investigate this further? I would be willing to facilitate the process.

don

Please do! At one of our meetings we held last year, the tank at the Australia house was a topic of discussion, and what we could do as a society to help improve things.

There is the interest in this group, we just never had an inside track at the zoo for buy-in.

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Don, you mentioned a volunteer program at the zoo. I woudl like to know more about that. I would like to become more involved with the zoo especially if they want to upgrade the Austialian reef exhibit. It would be an honor to be a part of something like that. Have you got a number or something I can call?

Me too! I'm sure that with help from local reefers, the exibit will be a fine one. There are some awesome tanks in people's houses, so surely we could create an awe inspiring exhibit with relatively modest capital and donations alone. I would be honoured to help in any way I could. Danny Zubot and I have talked about this at great length in the past. Let's make this a reality! Rich T. G.

This would be a good time for the club to get organized and actually become official... we can't all seperately go running to the zoo to offer our assistance, we need to formally offer our support. We've discussed this in the past... do we have the momentum to do it now?

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I'm new to the forum still but if people were to set up a meeting I would mark it on my calender to attend. Say the word and I'm there.

Ok, well, maybe it's time to hold another meeting then.

It doesn't have to be the social event that they seem to usually be, we could make it more of a "business" meeting where we can start planning out the formalizing of the club. I see Wendell has started the ball rolling again on the same thing for the Vancouver club, perhaps we can get some pointers.

Maybe a meeting is in order for all those interested in persuing this matter. If we post a thread to call for support, the feasability in question might be more apparent.

Hi-

Just wanted to let you know that I have made a couple of inquiries at the Zoo and will keep you posted.

don

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Awsome, I set up a pole on the Calgary home page to see what kind of reponse there would be for a reef club.