What I did on my summer vacation: a photo essay

[pwhitby]

OK...so besides the really impressive kelp tank (and you have to see it to believe it....the wave motion is awesome)...there are many other facets to the aquarium

I really liked the Jellyfish display:

there is also a sea otter tank and various reeftanks....way too many to mention.

Ok....back to the tank moving.

We loaded the middle of the big tank first, the back of the bigt one inside it and then one of the pieces of the smaller tank at the back of the truck. We closed the opening of the smaller tank off with some of the green fibergrate and filled it with the rock and other stuff we had to move.

Once loaded this truck began its 1,700 mile trip back to OKC.

The two remaining tank sections were moved, using forklifts out of the aquarium and stored till the next evening in a dide car park area. By that time we had done 24 hours straight so it was time to drive back to the hotel and sleep.

The next day we stripped the thirs tank down. This is a much smaller affair. It is a zig-zag touchpool with a large (probably 500g) sump. The touch pool is approx 20 feet long and about 2 feet wide. Tim cut the sump from the touch pool and we moved this out side ready for the next truck. Since we didnt have a great deal to load that night it went much easier. Also having more room we were able to just lift each section and have the truck reverse under them. The touch pool and sump went inside the large piece of tank and all was strapped in and seen off on its journey to OKC. By then it was after midnight and we were done. Speaking for myself it was great to see the last truck leave with all of our hard won work sat perched on top.

Wednesday was a day to chill out and we celebrated with some great seafood:

as you can see, the surroundings were spectacular, as was the food.

then it was back to the hotel, pack up and get ready to leave the next day.

 

[pwhitby]

After an uneventful flight home it was back at it again for the offloading in Moore. The trucks were both there by 9.00 and armed with a set of forklifts we started all over again:

off loading was done by picking tanks up and having the truck pull forward.

and that was it done!

I have to be honest, I thought Gary was crazy when he first suggested this trip, but with careful planning, good ideas and a lot of luck and a great team we pulled off what i thought would be near impossible. These tanks are amazing. Photos do not do it justice at all. We could hold a meeting inside the large one, with space to spare.

I truly enjoyed myself. I had a great Time with John, Steve, Tim and Gary.....but im not sure I want to do it again in the near future.

Im sure the other guys have some photos they can add to this as well.

I hope you enjoyed looking at this little photo essay.

P.

 

[camaro_6523]

:eek2: :eek1: :eek2: :eek1: So are they for scub lessions? or is that just a bonus..lol

 

[pwhitby]

Hey Camaro, welcome to the COMAS forum.

Im not sure they are really deep enough for scuba.

 

[Gwalker]

WOW, Paul that was a great thread! Put together nicely!

First off, yes I do plan on starting a public aquarium in the near future. There are still a lot of things to accomplish and to get together for this to happen. This generous donation by the Monterey Bay Aquarium grants us a huge head start for reaching this goal.

I would first like to thank the Monterey Bay Aquarium for this incredible opportunity. The staff and facility were incredible, inspiring and a privilege to work with. I can't stress this enough! Also this job could not have been done without the team of people that were involved. Paul, Tim, Steve and John did an amazing job! They all went above and beyond on this monstrous task to get the job done. The logistics on a job like this can be overwhelming, especially with narrow time frames to work with and 1800 miles to cover. I had been working on all the details for the past month and half with the guys. Still all the details could not have been prepared for. The only thing that got this job done so well was the ingenuity, dedication, adaptability and skills of the team that was on site. Even when the built up stress got to me a little on that last night of loading, the team outshined and overcame all obstacles in spite of me. My hats off to the entire team! You guys made this happen and I hope you are all as proud of this accomplishment as I am. I owe you all BIG TIME!!

Hopefully this will lead to a public aquarium in the next few years that OKC can be proud of. It may not be a large facility at first but I can tell you it will be unique and top notch. If everything goes as I would like, I can see the facility growing in size every few years or so until it can stand shoulder to shoulder with other world renowned aquariums.

I hope you all enjoyed sharing in our little adventure and this is only the beginning of much more to come!!!!!

Gary

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Sounds awesome Gary! I'm very excited for you. Oh, and your mailbox is full.

 

[captbunzo]

You know Gary, as this project proceeds, please keep us informed and keep the doors open for any way that us COMAS reefers can help. While I know there isn't much we can do financially (anything donated would just be a drop in the bucket), maybe someday we can help build some tanks or some walls or donate corals, or something.

Like I said, keep us informed as potential opportunties arise. I know that we would all be STOKED to have an aquarium arise in OKC.

Thanks for working on this!!!!!!!

 

[captbunzo]

Here is some more info on the MB aquarium......an article on it from earlier in the year by Steven Pro...

http://www.reefland.com/rho/2006/03/monterey_bay_aquarium.php

 

[Gwalker]

The MBA has some very nice exhibitory that bring people’s attention in to take a deep look at the exhibits and educates them at the same time. They are one of the leading institutions in innovative exhibitory and other public aquariums should do their best to emulate that. I think it’s irresponsible for Steven Pro to denounce facilities for housing animals on his “same old, same old” list. He actually compares these animals to overproduced ceramic ware?? Hello, these animals are rare and something to be appreciated. Its one thing to say the exhibitory wasn’t to his liking but to criticize the actual animals is just pointless. The leafy seadragons and jellies have only been successfully kept in public aquarium since the early and mid 90s. When I worked at the Dallas World Aquarium we were the first facility to successfully exhibit leafy seadragons in the US. This was about the same time Steven Pro was setting up his first saltwater aquarium (according to his resume). We had numerous facilities from around the world visit our facility to learn about their husbandry needs. It is sad to see that in a little over a decade since these animals were first exhibited, ol’ Steve is tired of them and seems to say “can’t you guys discover and exhibit animals that are more worthy of my gaze.” I have to say this is the first time I’ve heard anyone say they were board with looking at leafys or jelly displays! Sandtigers are also a very threated species and the public should be educated and achieve an appreciation for these animals as well. Steven basically says in his article that he hopes not to see these animals. In one fail swoop he pretty much puts the point across that these animals are a dime a dozen and you shouldn’t waste your time seeing them. Talk about eradicating the hard work that these facilities do to educate and get people to appreciate these rare animals. I guess that’s not important to Steve. It really shows he has no clue of the difficulty and innovative work that goes into keeping these animals. The overall goal of public aquariums is research and education, not how can we impress Steven Pro. If someone not in the field reads his article, what appreciation do you think they’ll have towards these animals when they see them at a facility? I think the first paragraph is basically an ego feeding diatribe that says look how important I am in this field; you really have to work to impress me!

I would have hoped to see more appreciation for ALL aquatic life from someone who claims to be a professional aquarist. What’s next? In ten years will he say “Ugh. I felt my heart sink, more of the same old, same old.” when they tell him they are starting the tour of the white shark exhibit? Maybe they could put a frame around the white shark exhibit so Steve can appreciate it? It seems he did miss one point of the MBA exhibits. The accents were there to accentuate the animals, not the other way around.

Sorry Paul, I don’t mean to rant about your post, he did have some nice pics and overall positive things to say about the MBA so I do appreciate your post. The rest just hit a nerve with me and thought it put the wrong message across.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Gary

 

[captbunzo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8227707#post8227707 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gwalker
<<< CUT out RANT RANT RANT >>>

Sorry Paul, I don’t mean to rant about your post, he did have some nice pics and overall positive things to say about the MBA so I do appreciate your post. The rest just hit a nerve with me and thought it put the wrong message across.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

On the contrary, Gary - I am very glad to hear your thoughts on that, honestly, when I came across the article today, I didn't actually read it - I just looked at the pretty pics. I was planning on reading it later tonight when I had more time. Because of your post, I will do so much more well informed.

Also, I am more confident all the time that you are EXACTLY the right man to bring a world-class aquarium to the Oklahoma City area.

And just a disclaimer for those who are not familiar with Steven Pro, he often has some very useful things to say and is over all a pretty good guy. Of course, this goes to show that noone is faultless, no matter how well they do in this hobby. Anyhow, here is one of my favorite articles by Steven.

http://www.reefland.com/rho/0106/add8.php

(hopefully that article is less contraversial... )

 

[dugg]

Wow Gary, how did you get that out of the article paul posted? I thought he gave the MBA a rather good review there for going above and beyond the norm.

 

[Gwalker]

Yea, I'm sure he is probably a nice guy. I posted a little too quickly and went a little too far out on the edge. It just reminded me of when people used to go through the Dallas World Aquarium or Shark Reef and say "was that it?" and didn't seem to appreciate what they saw or what it took to achive it. Even if it was the "same old, same old" sandtigers, jellies and leafys (among many other things). I didn't take the high road on that one and I usually try to.

Gary

 

[Steven Pro]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8228897#post8228897 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dugg
Wow Gary, how did you get that out of the article paul posted? I thought he gave the MBA a rather good review there for going above and beyond the norm.

I was wondering that myself. It is actually quite a glowing review, if you take the time to read the whole thing before posting.

 

[dugg]

It's ok Gary, you probably just caught a little bit of whatever makes the people in Monterey so crabby while you were there lol. (jk). I have been to a few aquariums around the country, and Steve gave them a far better review then i would have given. Ofcoarse i was punched by a stranger while walking down the walking trail by the beach waiting for them to open. I was walking with my family when a bike rider decided that i should not have had one foot on his bike path while walking and punched me as he rode by. I was then told by the Monterey police that i was a tourist and should respect the locals and just get over it, so i was just a little bit crabby myself by the time we got to the aquarium lol.
It is a beautiful facility that should be moved so far from where it is that the people of Monterey are tourist when they visit it.

 

[Gwalker]

Well the review of the MBA itself wasn’t what I was referring to. If you read my entire post you will see what I said about the review at the end. I did however in high insight approach this from a reactive angle instead of a more positive response. I did also read the entire article before posting. The first paragraph, which will usually sets the mood of any writing, was what I was referring to. It came off to me along the lines of what I posted before, however this is not the main issue I was concerned with. Since I’ve helped set up several facilities to comply with AZA accreditation rules. I can tell you they have no such list of animals you need to exhibit. They are mainly interested in facilities having quality husbandry and educational programs. Since you are an aspiring writer in this field, it surprised me how much you disregarded other aspects of this field as trivial and mundane. You came across as seeing these “same old” exhibits at other institutions as an agonizing experience. You being a “professional” in this field requires you to have a broader sense of responsibility to your writings as they pertain to the causes these institutions strive for. People who don’t have any knowledge of this field that are looking for an experienced guide in learning about these facilities can get a negative impression on these particular animals. They can get this negative impression even before they get a chance to experience them for themselves. If for some reason you are bored with these animals and it is such a pain for you to see them, that doesn’t mean others that have never seen them will walk away with your impressions. Unless, perhaps they’ve read your article before hand. With little exceptions public aquarium facilities main focus and goal is to educate the public about the animals they exhibit. They usually strive very hard to educate the public and instill an appreciation for these animals. If someone doesn’t know, understand or appreciate they won’t care about the conservation of these animals. Another issue is that most inland facilities can be limited to housing certain species. For instance many of the jellies or ctenophores at the MBA are extremely difficult to near impossible if you don’t have immediate collection access or a clean ocean flow through system. The kelp tank is another example, it would be nearly impossible to create that in an inland facility. The kelp requires a constant nutrient rich saltwater supply. So they do have a bit of an advantage on the diversity of what makes up their collection.

I understand that you were setting up a comparison for your good review by saying you had low expectations, basically saying you’ve seen it all. However I think this would have been better served without the negative sentiments of what animals other facilities house. My post had much of the same mistakes. I should not have been negative toward you. I don’t know you personally and didn’t have a true basis for those statements. By having this discussion, you can see how you write can be very important to how you relay to people. It just makes sense to support the public aquarium’s educational missions even if your particular interest doesn’t pertain to the types of animals they exhibit. I believe it would serve your field and career much better to be more of a steward of the aquatic field rather than a critic. I can tell you it will take you much farther in this industry. It’s much easier to point a finger than lend a hand. Don’t take the easy way. Try to see the positive in what all these different facilities have to offer, even if they are small and have limited venues, their message is important.

Gary

 

[Steven Pro]

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this.

Sincerely,
Steven Pro

 

[Gwalker]

Umm, okay?

Well sorry for that interuption in this thread. I really wasn't tring to mess up Paul's really nice thread about this job, so back to our normal programming.

The next picture shows that the tank had a false acrylic back. This allowed for them to have fish in the back of the tank without the sharks eating them. Unforntunatly we had to cut up this nice long piece of acrylic in order to remove it. Steve did a nice job with that task. The curved sheets ended up being about 50" tall and 120" long. These sheets will make nice viewing windows for DIY fiberglass tanks in the range of 500 to 700 gallons. There is enough sheets to make about 4 of these tanks. Steve is getting a smaller panel for an exhibit in his soon to be expanded shop.

The next pic shows our fearless leader muscling one of these sheets off the truck.

I think that covered most of the details of the job. After looking at all the pics of the work, I have to tend to agree with Paul. I must be crazy! Although I think it would require a bit of craziness to do this job. I just can't wait to post some pics of these tanks getting set up!!

Gary

 

[captbunzo]

Won't that be a tank setup thread...

 

[MyMonkey]

Sorry folks, just now seeing this thread. Very nice team effort everyone. Gary is certainly a visionary. I hope to hold a ticket to the Gary "Fish Master" Auarium some day. (Better title sure to come)