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Re: NANFA-- question
The North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA) :
NANFA was founded by Aquarist who were interested in
keeping, studying and raising North
American Native Fish in the Aquarium. They found the North
American temperate species to be excellent
Aquarium species. They also found very little information
available on domestic rearing or breeding so they
began to share information with each other. That desire to
better understand these fishes
and to educate the public lead to the formation of NANFA in
1973.
From that humble beginning NANFA members have branched
out into a variety of activities across the
continent and the world. Currently NANFA is structured very
similar to The American Fisheries Society
with regional chapters being the place where the bulk of the
field work and interaction takes place, local
meetings are the usual place where a new member gets their
feet wet (in a proverbial and literal sense !). For
the price of membership members also receive from the
national office a quarterly magazine and a bi-
monthly news letter, in addition many states have their own
regional newsletter. Occassionally we send out
specials issues, like our recent comprehensive (76 pg.)
North American Threatened endangered list in a
magazine format to all members.
Even more important than where NANFA has come from is
where NANFA is going. With their unique
membership mix ( 1/3 Professionals - 2/3 Aquarists) NANFA is
positioned to bridge two worlds historically
very separated. The world of the Serious Aquarist and the
Biologist ( See attached article Aquarist
as a Naturalist). This combination has proven invaluable in
keeping and breeding difficult Native species. A
great many NANFA members are literal experts in individual
species care and breeding. It's members are
involved in public education , domestic propagation ,
endangered species propagation (see attached) ,
photography, and publishing. For example NANFA members
regularly (authors and photographers) appear in
Tropical Fish Magazines with articles about specific species
and Native Fish in general, this exposure
routinely nets 500,000 readers, 500,000 people who may for
the first time get to see a particular Darter,
Shiner or Madtom. With this increased awareness of Native
Species we hope to encourage Aquarist to have
a greater involvement on both local and National level
environmental issues.
Consider this, the financial resources of North
American Aquarists is absolutely huge (over 1 billion
dollars spent annually in the hobby) what if a small
percentage of that money was directed to the study and
preservation of Native Fishes via NANFA, AFS or other
organizations with a similar agenda. The impact
would be staggering, What if Aquarium clubs got involved in
stream preservation ? Suddenly every mid
sized town could have 50-100 new people involved on a local
level ! It would be life changing for our
organizations and our Native Fishes. NANFA strongly
encourages it's members to participate locally whether
it be a University or an Aquarium Club
For instance a great many of NANFA members have had
experience and success rearing and breeding
unusual non game species like Darters, and Pygmy Sunfish.
These individuals have historically kept their
findings to themselves. While just across town a well
funded State or University's project may have just
begun to collect data on domestic rearing of a species
filling up the tanks in someone's basement across
town! Wouldn't it be more productive and much simpler if
Professionals could contact Serious Aquarist via
an organization with a history of documentation and success
in domestic breeding of Native Species. An
organization concerned about species preservation , and
ecosystem integrity. That organization is NANFA ,
and we look forward to partnering in any way we can with the
American Fisheries Society.
To join NANFA Please Send :
Name, Address , phone etc. and $15 (North American Members
US and Canada)
$17 foreign ( Everywhere else ) in US funds to
Konrad Schmidt
1663 Iowa Avenue East
St. Paul Minnesota
55106
Sincerely ,
Robert Rice
President NANFA