Each year, MASNA provides the opportunity for scientists in any field relating to the marine aquarium hobby to showcase their research at the Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA).

The goal of this MASNA program is to open a line of communication between scientists, industry, and interested hobbyists, so that scientific research crucial to the sustainability and advancement of the hobby is freely available to all stakeholder groups. MASNA’s 4^thAnnual Scientific Poster Session was held at MACNA 2019 in Orlando, Florida. Electronic versions of this year’s posters will be posted, and can be viewed at https://masna.org/masna-programs/masna-scientific-poster-session/.

This year, MASNA recognized two exceptional student researchers at the undergraduate and graduate level, for producing and effectively communicating the best poster in each of their respective categories.

The graduate poster session awardee is Sarah Hutchins. Sarah is a masters student at the University of Florida’s Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory in Ruskin, Florida. Sarah’s poster entitled “Optimizing Culture Parameters of the Cyclopoid Copepod Oithona colcarva” addressed a critical aspect of marine ornamental aquaculture-producing high quality live food items for larval fishes.

The undergraduate poster session awardee is Lauren Block, a third year student at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Her poster entitled “Coculture: A larval rearing technique for clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) with the tropical paracalenid copepod, Parvocalanus crassirostris” discussed the benefits of growing larval marine fishes in tandem with copepods to provide a continuous supply of nutritious live food items.

Congratulations to Sarah and Lauren!

MASNA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization composed of marine aquarium societies, individual hobbyists, and industry partners from North America and abroad, totaling several thousand individuals.

MASNA’s goals are to:

• Educate our members through online and published material, the MACNA conference, and other sanctioned events.
• Assist in forming and promoting the growth of clubs within the hobby while ensuring a sustainable future for the marine environment.
• Support the efforts to eliminate abuses in collecting and transporting marine organisms through education, assistance, and encouragement.
• Encourage the ethical growth of the marine aquarium hobby and support captive breeding/propagation efforts.

More at www.MASNA.org