Conference Report

[Caryl]

Conference was a great chance for me to meet some of The Fishroom members. It is always good to be able to put a face to a name. A fuller report, with more detail, will be in the next Aquarium World magazine.

Conference started Friday night but we arrived too late to participate so I can’t tell you anything about it.

The Mayor of Napier opened conference and then we listened to guest speaker Gordon Dine, a Life Member of the Hawkes Bay Aquarium Society. He had been involved in the Napier Aquarium since its original concept more than 25 years ago. Gordon talked about setting up the original aquarium and changes in fish keeping over the years. It was very interesting.

After morning tea we got on with the AGM. This was very quiet for once with no major dissentions in the ranks, few interjections from the cheap seats, and no remits to discuss.

Timaru have resigned citing dissatisfaction with the federation, lack of communication, and a belief that the federation doesn’t do anything anyway. They claimed no one from the FNZAS had bothered visiting them since the late 80’s. Considering they hosted a conference in 1990 and the FNZAS president in the early 90’s was Timaru member Bruce King, we found this hard to understand. Disappointment was expressed that Timaru had not voiced its concerns to anyone before now and they could have at least sent delegates to represent their club over the years.

It was suggested we should drop the capitation fee from $7.50 to $5.00 next year. Hot debate followed and the suggestion finally accepted.

One of the members present was from DOC and she talked a little about DOC’s position when it came to aquatics. She also had posters exhorting people not to release unwanted aquarium pets into the waterways. The best thing about these posters (in my opinion) was that each one had the DOC logo and the FNZAS logo on them. Each club was free to take posters back to their clubs.

The final business of the AGM was to elect new officers.

The trophies were presented to the various winners.

The final decision of the AGM was on who would host conference 2004. Marlborough is hosting 2003 but no club came forward to host the one after that. It was at this point the suggestion was made to go offshore – to Vanuatu. Airfares overseas were usually cheaper than internal fares, Vanuatu used NZ currency, and it was the cheapest option out of the islands. A letter will be going out to FNZAS members informing them of the opportunity to attend.

On this exciting note, the conference was officially closed.

We then looked at, and judged, the entries in the video competition.

The only entry in the club poster competition was from Marlborough. I was then asked to give a small talk about the display I had also made, showing what our club offered members. The display board featured examples of our club newsletter, a Beginners’ Guide booklet for setting up a tropical tank and Basic Aquarium Lighting, advertising posters, club business cards, raffle books, club yearly programmes, the FNZAS fund raising and publicity booklet, 3 fold information leaflets, a club calendar and examples of our club tank and pond competition certificates and rosettes.

We then had free time before dinner at the Golden Crown Chinese Restaurant.

The opportunity to then enjoy Napier’s nightlife was too tempting for some while others headed back to the Kennedy Park venue.

Sunday morning started with a mystery bus tour and a visit to the local Farmers’ Market in Hastings where lots were buying fresh produce. Then we went to the British Car Museum at Hamouana. From there it was on to Kim Crawford winery (Te Awanga) for a sample of wines. Back on the bus and we were off to the Clifton Bay Café, by the gannet colony, for a delicious lunch.

The most interesting stop of the day was at HB Aquaculture (Awatoto). This company breeds seahorses (currently about 60,000 of them) for the overseas market, paua (abalone for you non kiwis), brine shrimp (to feed the seahorses), paddle crabs and crayfish (aka rock lobsters). The crayfish have not been successful though as they are too slow growing. We were split into two groups and given a guided tour of the facility. It was a very interesting afternoon.

Back at Kennedy Park, we had a little more free time before heading out again – this time for a tour of the new Napier Aquarium. What a wonderful place! Not only could we tour the facility at our leisure (with wine and cheese served) but we were also able to go behind the scenes and check out the huge filtration units and other machinery needed for the smooth running of the place. We could have spent a lot longer here but dinner was waiting so we wandered down the road to the Napier Cosmopolitan Club.

A number of raffles were run throughout the weekend. The evening finished with a Dutch auction, then the passing over of the FNZAS banner to the next hosts - Marlborough.

There were plenty of raffles and prizes handed out throughout the weekend, thanks to the generosity of sponsors.

It was good to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. This year saw a number of new faces so I hope they enjoyed themselves and will return again.

As usual, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and look forward to the next conference in Marlborough 2003.