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Posted by JR
on 7/3/2009, 1:16 pm, in reply to "Re: A bit off subject"
64.12.117.75
Dear Steve,
Ahhhh, to be 12 again! It is July and I would be at the family's summer beach bungalow . Those were the days, fishing, swimming and surfing. And that was the summer when I started noticing girls for the first time.
One day on the beach while teasing the girls, as 12 year old boys do, one came over to my blanket ( her name was Lynn) sat down, smiled and kissed me!! It was like a sweet ,warm bolt of lightening! I was never the same.
Also that summer I discovered snorkeling. There was a boat basin nearby and every morning Joe, Kelly, mark and myself would walk over to the marina's boat ramp and begin our underwater adventures. The water was so alive then. Seahorses and pipe fish in the eel grass fascinated me. And in other areas, blue claw crabs provided the practical value of the ocean and large green eel provide currency as the elderly Italian ladies would give us a few quarters to gather some for them. And on the sandy bottom areas we could find small sun dial flounders and other unusual creatures. It was my element and I loved it! Total captivation, I had discovered my first love. Some kids dreamed of being soldiers, police, firemen – I dreamed of being Lloyd Bridges, Deep sea diver! LOls
That experience lead to scuba diving and later, official certification and advanced certification. But it did not end there! Soon I began keeping specimens from the sea. But with very little luck! That got to me. As a young boxer at the YMCA and later for my school, I was always determined not to be defeated. And I felt the same sense of resolve towards the challenge of keeping these marine fish alive. I was a voracious reader even then, so I poured over every scrap of literature on the keeping of marine fish that I could find. And there was precious little in writing in those days! So I turned to the technical stuff! I had already of course, mastered the keeping of goldfish, guppies and other live bearers, but marines were considered impossible to keep. But then again, I was expected to loose to many boxing opponents I was put up again and some came away quite surprised. Let me not mislead you, I was not very strong. But I was very 'effective' when I could get close in to my target and had a devastating upper cut and right cross. It's a case of wearing one's opponent down before bringing in the sleeper. So I kept that idea in the keeping of marine fish alive and well against all odds. Only instead of blunt trauma, I would employ trial and error, information and hard experience. Many told me to quite but I wouldn't ( in some cases, my performance must have been ugly to watch). For instance, at one point I attempted to covert them to fresh water, gradually. How silly I looked!! But it was part of the learning process. Eventually I learned to keep the simple specimens alive - crabs, small fry of various species, pipe fish, tiny blow fish etc. I was thrilled, but not satisfied. The aquariums got bigger and the technology became more and more sophisticated. And then it happened--- One day, just after I got my driver's licence, I was driving around endlessly as we all do when we get our first car, and I noticed a new shop had opened. It was a fish store! Not a pet shop, mind you, but a specialty fish store! And when I went in I had no idea of the epiphany that was about to be revealed to me on that fateful day. The owner, a guy named Joe Young, said : do you like marine fish? Do I 'like' marine fish? No I LOVE marine fish!! So he showed me the marine tanks in his store. There, in 240 gallon plastic -like aquariums ( the largest I had ever seen) was pristine water with specimens from all over the sunny Caribbean seas!! Angel fish, butterfly fish, royal grammas-- it was unbelievable and captured me completely, heart and soul. In a phrase and in fish imaginary - “I was hooked!”
This hobby lead to twenty years of scuba diving all over the world, The collecting of my own marine species, published articles on all subjects fish related, an amateur photography career of selling photos to fish magazines, diving magazines and a few books. And at the peak of this passion I presided over a 600 gallon , 400 gallon, 175 gallon and 2 - 90 gallon marine aquariums. The condo looked like a public aquarium! I began breeding percula clowns and rearing the fry quite successfully. And worked with other species like jaw fish and Catalina gobies. And took a chance but failed to raise the eggs/young of an octopus. Those were the days!!
But like all interests tend to do, it seem to come to the end in the road. In my case, this love affair was ending due to a paradox. I had become an advanced certified diver and my love of captive keeping came in conflict with my budding conservation principles. It , all of the sudden, seemed immoral to take certain species off the reef. And worse, the collecting techniques involved the use of cyanide and this was actually destroying the reefs.
Anyone who knows me knows I tend to swim to the top and inner circle of my interests. And marine keeping and diving was no different. I knew everyone in both hobbies. I knew the innovators, the pioneers and the shakers and movers. And I was involved in the very first MACNA conference in Toronto Canada. The hobby was changing for me and my conscious could not allow me to support an immoral fish trade. But the people stuff got complicated as some made their living in trading cyanide collected fish- especially from the Philippines. In addition, I was getting burned out on diving as each time I returned to an area, the reef was a little more trampled by the hordes of divers that had visited it since my last photo tour.
Around that time, I discovered a fish called a koi. Before that it was just a big goldfish as far as I was concerned. But I liked the idea of a pond and when I built a new house I delayed setting up all my aquariums other than the 600 gallon, and build a pond instead. Then it happened-- one day while reading a German fish publication I saw a piece on a Dr Kuroki. It was a piece about a man who used to collect carp in his grandfather's rice paddies and who would at a young age ( maybe 12?) sneak off to find good fishing holes were carp laid basking in the sun. In the article there was a picture of his koi and koi pond. I was instantly propelled back in time to the day I walked into Joes' special marine store! Dang-it!! I was HOOKED again!
A year or so later, I discovered my second mentor, Grant Fugita. Now Grant has forgotten more about koi than most people will ever know so I was very fortunate to have him as a friend and koi dealer. And that association fast tracked me in understanding the Japanese vision of koi, which is really the old true vision of koi. Years later I met Dr Kuroki and became active in ZNA and AKCA, showed koi, finished 4 GCs and 2 Reserve GCs. Won the first koi America and wrote and have lectured for many years now.
Once again I have come to a moral challenge in my hobby career- do I stay or do I go? The dealer side is just too ugly to tolerate. We need them of course as they are the source of our focus. But some are so damaging to our pure love of the mystique of the hobby, preying on our innocents while our guards are down. On the other hand, will I let underhandedness and thief and as base as something as money ruin my love of this hobby? Don't know-- But I can tell you, I have set up the marine tanks again. Trying to stay with captive bred fish and frags grown in captivity ( it does take off the collecting pressure to have captive bred available) and recently I have been asked to invest as a silent partner in a scuba diving business that has come on the market. So who knows what direction life will take in the next year? After all. I'm not 12 any more. If only I were, what adventures I would have------
As I approach my 58th birthday, a Special thanks to Steve Woodhead for reminding me that as I grow older, I should never loose that moment when I was just 12 years old. Full of hope, principles and excitement for life in all it’s forms - Thank you, Steve. - JR
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