John G. - Shedd Aquarium

One of the first aquriums that succeeded

As part of SECORE, the Shedd Aquarium was one of the first aquariums to successfully catch, settle spawn, and raise colonies of the threatened Caribbean Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata).

Shedd Aquarium has been involved with SECORE since 2006. Collection Manager for Special Exhibits Mark Schick is proud of what he and his colleagues have accomplished.

‘We currently house over 150 colonies from the 2007 and 2008 spawn that were collected by our participants as part of the SECORE workshops in Puerto Rico’, he smiles.

Leadership

Mark Schick has been working at Shedd Aquarium for over twelve years. In his present position he is responsible for the husbandry and life support of the special exhibits, seahorse collection, live foods, and behind the scenes coral holding area.
Schick is very enthusiastic about his work with SECORE. He became involved with SECORE to learn more about the sexual reproductive techniques of corals.

‘As an aquarium that displays live coral, we felt that it was our responsibility to show leadership and responsibility in how we acquire our coral collection. By learning and using the techniques that SECORE has to offer we are able to harvest sexual recruits from our own exhibits and go into wild populations to study reproduction and obtain coral with no impact.’

Inspiration

Shedd participated in the Puerto Rico SECORE workshops in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and in the 2009 SECORE spawning trip to Curacao. Visitors of the aquarium can learn about the work on coral conservation.

‘It is part of our mission to inspire and educate our guests’, Mark Schick says. ‘Therefore we have a display in our Wild Reef exhibit, describing the workshops and showing videos about the collection techniques and the difference between healthy and damaged Elkhorn coral reefs. We provide public lectures about coral conservation and coral reef biology to education classes for schoolchildren.’

Shedd also acts as a repository for video and photos from the collecting trips that are available to all SECORE members.

Coral exhibits

The Shedd Aquarium has multiple coral exhibits ranging in size from ten gallons to over 5,000 gallons. The aquarium takes serious responsibility as to where the live corals originate from.

Mark Schick: ‘Most of our corals come from fragments of colonies acquired from other public aquariums and from our relationship with US Fish and Wildlife. The Shedd Aquarium cares for corals that have been confiscated due to illegal importation.’

_{Photos: courtesy of Shedd Aquarium, USA}