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Fry-Anglers
Lead Society Donations
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Members of the Bermuda Fry-Angle Aquarium Society are delighted and deservedly proud to be among the top of the list of donors to the Paul V. Loiselle Conservation Fund. The Fry-Anglers achieved this feat with the proceeds from their Annual Charity Auction that is held each June.
Fry-Angle favourite, Rusty Wessel, has visited as the guest speaker for most of the charity auctions. He has given various interesting presentations, such as one on the Panuco Basin of Mexico and the fishes that are found there. Rusty has generously donated a nice assortment of fish for the auctions, comprising a variety of cichlids and livebearers, primarily from Mexico. One of Rusty’s visits was sponsored by Marineland, who donated an assortment of dry goods to the club. The members decided to incorporate the dry goods into the charity auction to boost the amount of money that they could donate to conservation. This year, the club held a consignment auction in July and added the proceeds to the funds that had been raised in the June charity auction.
The club’s auctions are reputed to draw high bids as exemplified by a bag of four Montezuma swordtails going for $210. Cichlids certainly hold their own in the auctions, also attracting high bids. “Honduran red point” cichlids have proven to be very popular, one bag going for $165, and a second selling for $150. A bag of four Lake Tanganyika featherfins, Opthalmotilapia ventralis, attracted a lot of interest and finally went under the hammer for $150. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the cheapest bag of fish went for $20 – pygmy swordtails. When the dust settles, the auctions have been known to pull in over $3,000. The entire proceeds of the auctions are donated to the Paul V. Loiselle Conservation Fund.
The Bermuda club first made a donation of $1,650 to the fund in 2000, in response to a challenge from the Pacific Coast Cichlid Association, who seeded the fund with $500 and challenged other clubs to match it. Fry-Anglers have since donated $2,000 in 2002, $1,500 in 2003, $3,000 in 2004, and now add another $3,000 in 2005, for a total of $11,150! The Fry-Anglers acknowledge that their efforts would not have been possible without the generosity of Rusty Wessel who has donated fish for three of the Annual Charity Auctions.
Bermuda Fry-Angle President, Craig Morfitt, believes that it is proper that fish hobbyists contribute to the conservation of fishes that make their beloved hobby possible. He encourages and challenges other local clubs to donate the proceeds from one annual event to cichlid conservation. Your efforts may just ensure that certain species are available for future generations to enjoy.
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Fry-Anglers outstanding efforts lead the way in PVL Conservation
society donations. |