MACNA 2007 : Day 1

Well day one of MACNA is over and I gotta say I had a great time. The speakers were excellent, the exhibit hall is great, and the reception was well done, at least until they ran out of food. But the open bar made up for that.

Three of the four lectures I went to were informative and fun. The forth was pretty doom and gloom. According to Dr. Schimek, the reefs have until about 2050 and then the ocean just won't be able to support them anymore. And major changes to the planet will take place as the ocean changes to something we've never seen before. But I digress...

The exhibit hall has loads of great vendors and exhibitors. Some of my favorite companies were there including Deltec and Eco-Tech Marine. I got to talk to the Eco-Tech marine guys for a while about the Wireless Wave Driver which should be released soon. And I got to see them in action, and they are wild. Can't wait for mine to be delivered. I didn't get to talk to Doug from Deltec because he was always mobbed by people. Connecticut's own Aquactinics didn't make a good showing to start the show off as one of their lights was wired wrong at the factory and they had it torn apart and were trying to make field repairs to it. Hopefully their display, which is combined with MarcoRocks, will be up and better tomorrow.

There were particularly good display systems set up by ORA and at the combined Eco-Tech, Euro-Reef, Marine Depot, and Zero Edge Aquarium booth. The Zero Edge tanks are absolutely gorgeous. I really can't say enough about them, just gorgeous.

There were a few vendors who were selling corals and clams, some very nice ones too. I'm not sure I'm going to be buying any though, at least until Sunday. Hopefully they will lower their prices to move the goods they don't want to bring home.

There is free loot galour. I picked up a toy clown fish for my niece. For me, so far I've gotten some fish food, a few magazines, a nice insulated bag, and various snacks and drinks.

The raffle items weren't on display today as they were supposed to be. I guess they are going to open that up tomorrow.

I'm really bad estimating the number of people in a crowd, but I'd say there was at least a thousand at the reception tonight. ( knowing how I estimate though it could be 2 or 3 thousand, lol ) Dr. Bruce Carlson talked all about the Georgia Aquarium for almost two hours. The place looks amazing, and will be the site of next years MACNA. He shared details about their Whale Shark display with its more then 6 million gallon capacity, and their Coral Reef tank which holds 120+ thousand gallons, 1500+ fish of 100+ different species.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow starting with breakfast at 7 and a full day of lectures and exhibit hall roaming.