The success of a local fish store and the success of a town’s high school rests on some very similar factors: involvement with the community, engagement with its “customer base”, whether that’s the school’s students or the shoppers at the store, advertisement and promotions, and, most importantly, innovation and education. Across the nation, high schools and local fish stores have been teaming up with great results, and the latest partnership, between South Huntington High School (on Long Island, New York), and FishLife Aquariums, illustrates the trend beautifully.

From the school’s website: “Whitman research students in Mr. Feraco’s classes have been diligently working on an exciting new research project. With a very generous donation from Fishlife Aquariums in South Huntington, our research program was able to construct a coral aquaculture system in the research classroom. Fishlife owners Joe Racioppi and Paul Olsen, and manager Chris Sullivan, recently instructed students about coral fragging.

‘Our 10×4 foot coral aquaculture system is currently being used for a variety of different types of coral restoration and animal behavior studies,’ said Mr. Feraco. ‘Students are exploring optimal conditions for the growth of many different coral species.” With 75 percent of reefs currently under the threat of damage or death, there may not seem like much any one person can do. But students are learning to grow and study the genetics of captive corals, which they hope to sell to aquarium enthusiasts — and possibly one day introduce back into the wild.'”

I commend everyone involved with this project, and wish them all success!

If you know of or own a LFS participating in a similar project, please drop us a line – we’d be happy to feature you in a future post.