Storm Aftermath: Aquarium Trade Checks-In from CORAL and AMAZONAS

mpedersen · Sep 15, 2017

Local fish shop Coral Sea Aquarium in West Palm Beach, FL, bordered up, where new owner James Wood camped out for days in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Learn more about their story at the end of Part II of our three part series. Image Credit: Coral Sea Aquarium

Rev suggested I share this latest project with you all here on Reef2Reef; I'm sure you're all well aware of the impact that Harvey and Irma have had on your fellow aquarists. All this week, I've been collecting stories from the aquarium trade in Texas, but mostly Florida, to find out how fish-related businesses in the region are faring.

I was concerned at first that I wasn't going to hear from folks, but by Thursday evening, the reports were a deluge. This project has consumed my full attention this week and generated a massive archive of individual post-hurricane stories: some brief, some lengthy, but all compelling. You'll probably pick up a tip or two along the way with good ideas to prepare for the unexpected natural disaster you could one day face.

I was left without power last summer when a severe storm leveled trees and tore apart roofs up here in Minnesota; I spent 6 days running a chainsaw, eating off our grill, and constantly tending to the generator that kept the fishroom going up here - you don't have to live in a hurricane zone or tornado alley to be subjected to extremely damaging weather. I found moments of odd peace among this otherwise very stressful scenario, it was a bit surreal and amazing at how other aspects of life become so unimportant during the recovery period. Still, I can only imagine how some folks, still deep in cleanup without power or running water, may now be doing.

My heart goes out to those who are still "in it". I think about folks like James Wood, who checked in with us to relay that he literally just purchased and took ownership of Coral Sea Aquariums in West Palm Beach, FL, on Sept 1st of this year, to then be instantly dragged into a "fight for life" at the shop, living in the shop 24/7 in an attempt to avert disaster while the power remained out. It's stressful enough just to buy a business, but to then put a hurricane on top of that?

One thing that became clear as I heard from folks; the smaller, and younger companies, are the ones who are at times going to be struggling the most. When these companies, whether large or small, are back up and running, they're going to need your support to help rebuild and come back stronger than ever.

I hope you find value in these reports from the field; thanks for taking the time out to read them!

Part 1 - https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2017/09/15/after-the-storms-the-aquarium-trade-checks-in-part-14/
Part 2 - https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2017/09/15/after-the-storms-the-aquarium-trade-checks-in-part-24/
Part 3 - https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2017/09/15/after-the-storms-the-aquarium-trade-checks-in-part-34/
Part 4 - https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2017/09/15/after-the-storms-the-aquarium-trade-checks-in-part-44/

- Matt

Scorpius · Sep 15, 2017

It's terrible to see all those thousands of dead clownfish. Shame on the owners for not having a generator to save them. It's not like hurricanes are a rare occurrence in Florida. They happen every year. How could you as a business owner not invest in a secondary system to power your life support in the event of a large scale power outage?

mpedersen · Sep 16, 2017

Scorpius said:
It's terrible to see all those thousands of dead clownfish. Shame on the owners for not having a generator to save them. It's not like hurricanes are a rare occurrence in Florida. They happen every year. How could you as a business owner not invest in a secondary system to power your life support in the event of a large scale power outage?

I encourage you to re-read that part of the story:

For those reading this account, wondering “what about a generator?”, well, there’s more to the story. JCA’s situation was not unique; evacuations, local ordinances, curfews, and at times simply the conditions, prevented generators from being started until long after power was lost. With JCA, it was too late, and even then, the generators were a weak point. “We did have a generator. When the storm came through we couldn’t exactly go outside and run it. By the time we were able to get to it due to the storm and curfew it was too late. Not to mention we had two generators and both failed in the midst of all this. The first died after 45 minutes of use, and after a few hours, the second one almost caught fire due to improper wiring from the factory."

mpedersen · Sep 16, 2017

In short, my understanding is that they're stuck off-site, not able to get a generator started up, and by the time they could, the damage was already done. Now, we could argue that proactively just throwing a bunch of battery operated air-pumps, left running BEFORE you had to leave, could have very well saved these fish. But that's the curse of hindsight. JCA's experience was not unique; Jack Wattley Discus is not permitted to have an automatic standby type generator where they are located, which means that all they could do was prep as best they could, and deal with the damage after the fact.