You know why bios are written in the third person? It's a lot easier to write about yourself when you can pretend some else is doing the writing. So, not being one to defy convention, I will write about Martin Moe as if he were someone else, but I'll try to be honest. Martin just turned 65 and is now on the cusp of senior citizenship. He's been working with marine life in one way or another for the last 45 years. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he works hard, and he's lucky. Not lucky in the "win the lotto" sense, but lucky in the conduct of life. This consists of knowing, as much as possible, who you are, always moving in the direction of your interests and abilities, and mostly, pursuing, recognizing, and accepting opportunities and responsibilities that carry you in this direction.

You also have to respect others, always deliver more than the contract specifies, and inspire others to do the same, but that's not luck, that's just part of who you are. If he had gone with the flow, instead of pursuing his interests, he could very well have spent his life running a hobby shop, selling life insurance, being a lifeguard, teaching middle school, or even delivering donuts, all respectable occupations, but not fulfilling the ambitions and aspirations of his youth.

Martin has a masters degree in marine biology, and has worked as lifeguard, a teacher, a fishery biologist, a marine fish breeder, and a writer. He began breeding marine fish, pompano, in 1969 and then developed the techniques for breeding clownfish in 1972. He started Aqualife Research in 1973 with clownfish and goby culture and then moved the company to the Florida Keys in 1975. There, the company continued to breed clownfish and other species, but concentrated on developing a method for breeding the large Atlantic angelfish, the French and the gray. This effort was biologically but not economically successful. The company moved to Walker's Cay in the Bahamas in the mid 1980s and concentrated on commercial clownfish culture. Martin became a bit "burned out" with running a fish hatchery and in the late 80s, and turned to writing and publishing books with his wife Barbara. Barbara was very good for Martin. They met in 1959 over a cup of coffee; she married him, put him through school, had three kids, edited and published their books, and generally kept the whole show on the road.

He wrote The Marine Aquarium Handbook, first edition published in 1982, which was very influential in the development of the marine aquarium hobby. The Marine Aquarium Reference followed in 1989 and since then he and Barbara have published a comprehensive book on spiny lobsters, a book on Breeding the Orchid Dottyback, and The Marine Aquarists' Quiz Book. The new edition of the Reference will update everything in the previous editions and include much more basic data and information on captive marine systems. Martin and Barbara now live in old house on the beach in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. The last three years have been a whirlwind of moving, working on the old house, trying to write, and of course, working with marine life and the fragile coral reef environment of the Florida Keys. A current project is working with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to restore the keystone herbivore, the long spined sea urchin, Diadema antillarum, to the reefs of the Keys.

A stuffy room with stale, dry air that wraps around you and even makes it hard to breathe. If you’re like me, you can’t wait to get out of there. It’s the same, only more so, in the marine environment. Water motion; tides, waves, currents, and eddies are absolutely necessary for invertebrate and vertebrate life on reefs and seagrass meadows, in oceans and bays. Oxygen and nutrients, food and waste removal, are all facilitated by major, minor and micro movement of water over, through and within the structures that life inhabits in the sea. So how does water motion on the reef compare with water motion in marine aquaria? We will explore this topic in this presentation.

BANQUET PRESENTATION: Reefs of the Florida Keys: Glory, Decline, and Recovery?

Have you ever visited the Florida Keys? Have you ever body surfed (carefully) over the reef crest and through great stands of elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata)? Have you ever swum over unending forests of staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornus)? Or gently tweaked the tailfin of a 12 foot long nurse shark sleeping in a cavern under a monstrous boulder coral (Montastraea cavernosa)? Have you ever watched in awe as a pair of spotfin butterfly fish wends their way between the cathedral-like columns of an ancient stand of pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus)? Have you ever chased a French angelfish through a fire coral reef and emerged with a dozen spines from the long spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum) broken off in your hand and arm? I did all this and more in the 1970s. Although the Florida Keys still offers great diving and collecting experiences, the reefs are now only a shadow of the glory that was there only a few decades ago. We will explore the extent and detail of the decline of these reefs and look at some possibilities that may help restore some of the former glory of the only coral reef in the continental United States.