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Re: species maintenance (genetic thoughts)
AUS62 at aol_com wrote:
>
> Catherine, the AKA has had a species maintenance committee almost its entire
> existence, but it has never functioned well because the membership does not
> participate! No kidding, all sorts of encouragement has been given over the
> years and Tom Grady -- chairman for two years(?) has repeatedly requested
> (begged) for input to form the database. Apparently some members do not read
> their BNL or the killie list regularly.
Amen, Harry, and I'm one of them. The BNL is so boring I very rarely read
all of it. Many of us find this forum more entertaining and informative, so
I do read it almost every day. For others? YMMV.
That said, I have e-mailed and requested the Chairs of SMC and KCC to
provide us with a joint bulletin, here, describing what their goals are and
how they relate to each other.
I've tried to maintain and coordinate one Core Species for KCC for more than
a few years, now. When I perceived my interest was waning and I wasn't doing
a truly great job, I asked the Genus Coordinator to get me out of that one,
so I could work on others. The silence became deafening. When health nailed
both my co-breeders at about the same time, I found my situation was even
worse. I was the only one doing them, so my fishroom practice was inevitably
starting an undesirable selection process. Requests for a new coordinator
fell on sympathetic, but essentially unresponsive, ears.
I won't abandon the species, which I think is about F29 or F30 at this
point. OTOH, I don't even know if it is still considered a "Core Species" by
KCC. I can't, in good conscience, go out and recruit fellow breeders when I
know I want to abandon them at my earliest opportunity, and actually have no
idea where KCC really wants to head.
It is expensive and frustrating to devote a significant amount of growth
space to an easy species that doesn't sell very well and that falls into the
"been-there-done-that" category for most hobbyists. Unfortunately, those are
some we are in most danger of losing! Someone has to do it.
Buying new stock to broaden the gene pool has been quite expensive, as the
local pool is all we have had, without input from Europe. Bidding high
didn't keep the pair from Germany from dying of shipping shock, last year,
either. :-(
Tom's job with SMC is essentially one of those functions best done by local
affiliates. I know he has a very comprehensive list of the fish both
maintained by folks in N. CA and that have been through the BAKA auctions in
recent years. Bill Gallagher did (and does) a truly fabulous job of keeping
that list up. The organization of AKA does not really lend itself to this
kind of function, but there seems to be severe resistance to examining any
possible changes.
Structure is part of it, but that can always be overcome by good
communications among folks of good will. I have high hopes that an early
note from Tom and Art, here, will get us all off top-dead-center and moving
ahead on both SMC and KCC tasks. It will not solve all the problems Harry
raised, but it may at least get us pulling toward solutions together.
Hopeful in Sunny Fremont,
Wright
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntleyone at home dot com
It was all for naught. Taxation with representation sucks too!
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