News

Important 17th Annual Symposium News from the AALSO President!

Hello AALSO Members!!

Well the time has certainly gone by fast since we were all at Moody Gardens. Your AALSO board has been very busy getting ready for the upcoming 17th Annual AALSO Symposium and I wanted to take time to reach out to all our members to bring up some important facts for this great symposium.

The Symposium is taking place May 22nd thru 25th, 2011 in Orlando, Florida at the Walt Disney World Resort. The host hotel is Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. The Symposium will be held in the elegant Coronado Springs Convention Center with the Tuesday night dinner and tour at the Seas with Nemo & Friends Pavilion located at Future World in Epcot theme park. After the Life Support tours, we will end the night having dessert and coffee watching Illuminations: a spectacular nightly show filled with pyrotechnics, lasers, fire and fountains on World Showcase Lagoon, accompanied by dazzling lighting effects projected onto the surrounding pavilions.

We strongly urge all attendees to rapidly book their reservations at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, citing the AALSO Symposium as their reference – to receive unheard of low price Lodgings at $119 + associated taxes, a night. Please book soon, this block of rooms can only be held at this price until April 29th and the rooms are going fast. The lodging rates will be honored for 3 days before and 3 days after so make sure to state in your notes if you would like to reserve rooms for extra days before or after the Symposium when you book. The link for booking hotel reservations is located on the website.

On Sunday before the Ice Breaker, George Tenhagen will be hosting the President’s Cup Golf Tournament at the premier Disney’s Osprey Ridge Golf Course; a George Fazio designed challenge with lots of rolling terrain and sand traps to provide amusement. Entry fees are $60 for this great opportunity. This includes range balls and the traditional electric cart. You can leave your golf clubs at home and conveniently rent clubs at the course for $29. (There was initially a misprint stating that rental clubs were included.) We will need 40 participants, so get signed up early! George has indicated to me that there is a Winner’s prize.

This Year our focus will be from old to new aquatic life support technologies for the 17th Annual Symposium. Our goal is to review historical perspectives and describe future directions for life support systems, including designs, equipment, and water quality; with special emphasis on new challenges and new technology. In addition to oral presentations, the AALSO 2011 Symposium will include hands-on workshops, panel discussions, and numerous vendor exhibitions. By the way I just wanted to point out that the Seas just celebrated its 25th anniversary and working there for the past 15 years I can tell you personally that it has undergone many technical changes and that brings me to my next topic.

Call for Presentations

Aquatic Animal Life Support Operators requests ABSTRACTS for Oral and Poster presentations for the 17th Annual AALSO Symposium. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Historical LSS perspectives
• Old technology / systems / operations to New technology / systems / operations
• Automation/controls
• Disinfection
• Equipment maintenance
• Filtration
• Foam fractionation
• Nitrification/Denitrification
• Ozone systems
• Pumps
• Regulatory challenges
• No discharge recovery systems
• Sensors & Instrumentation
• Water Quality/Chemistry

If you have been part of the changes in your Life Support system over the years and have some interesting facts or challenges as these changes occurred please share, you can submit your abstracts via email to rphillips@mbayaq.org; (831) 648-4974

Thank you in advance for your time and efforts in making this year’s symposium a great one!!

Sincerely
Richard Davis
AALSO President