Well, coelacanth, first of all, it has no spinal backbone. It’s got what’s called a notochord, and that is filled with an oil that I think gives them buoyancy and also gives them protection against the depth, they’re at for compressing their bodies. Coelacanth means hollow spine and the spines… Read More
And said, “I’ve got this fish here. “I think you better come and look at it, “and sort of described it.” And he hustled down there and looked at it, and he says, “God, this is a coelacanth, “they’ve been extinct for 350 million years.” And they finally got it… Read More
He covered the whole thing, put it in a container, took it back to South Africa, perhaps to Pretoria or St, help me, what’s the name?… Read More
Johannesburg. And they shipped it, got here, had to go to New York, but then it had to go to Dallas because the Doggone cargo compartment from New York, Chicago wouldn’t work right. So they had to send it to Dallas to get on a plane, come to Chicago. And… Read More
And they’re still there. Well, today, for some reason, it doesn’t fit in the aquariums plan to put them on exhibit. So I’d like to see that. And eventually, I think some aquarium is going to put a live on that exhibit. Probably the Japanese, I would guess. ‘Cause, they’ve… Read More
Now going back to the programs or exhibits that you would’ve wanted to implement, but for various reasons just didn’t happen. Well, I wanted to get a coelacanth on exhibit and I got two preserved ones which could have gone on exhibit. I had a man drop into my office… Read More
And I can’t remember what it was. Maybe it was Abbott Labs or somebody. And we would like to get a supply of saline from them. So I said, okay, I’ll work at it. And I think we had a board member at that time from Abbott, and we arranged… Read More
Yeah. Okay. Read More
Are there programs or exhibits that you would have implemented during your tenure that just didn’t happen for any number of reasons?… Read More
And the third is when I was president that I hired a law firm to defend AAZPA against the government who wanted side pass the Lacey Act, which read, you cannot import dangerous, noxious, venomous animals, and so forth. And some people with the government, and I could name the… Read More
What’s your proudest accomplishment?… Read More
I don’t think I have one. I think I have three. First was convincing my board that we ought to build the aquarium, and we’d build it. Second, receiving the Marlin Perkins Award. And I was so thrilled about that. I can’t tell you how… I got a call from… Read More
I’ve got a third one that won’t come to me right now. And the third is…… Read More
We’ll come back to that?… Read More
We’ve got to get better research and education programs in our institutions, and I think aquariums can provide a lot of this information, particularly in breeding programs, and find out, perhaps, excuse me, what’s wrong with this wild stock here and there, what’s wrong?… Read More
Why aren’t we seeing reproduction out there?… Read More
And I think the aquariums can cooperate with state and local, and federal agencies in solving a lot of these problems. Read More
Okay, but what would be the goals for the future aquarium, American aquariums?… Read More
What should be their goals?… Read More
Well, I think the goal is… One of the goals is to figure out how to preserve, and how to exhibit animals with which we have trouble exhibiting and keeping now, how to find out about their breeding potential. And this is all coming along. Read More