There are many of you who have not paid your 1971 dues. Please get them to me as soon as possible.
The results of the mail ballot have been counted and I report them as follows:
Article III Section I was almost unanimously approved.
Article III Section 2 (a) was defeated by a narrow though adequate number
(this amendment had to do with opening our full membership to any qualified scientist as opposed to veterinarians only).
On your copy of the constitution you can now add under Section 1:
a)
b)
c) Patron member
Under Section 2:
a)
b)
c) Patron membership shall be open to interested individuals or institutions with
the same rights as for associate members in part (b) above. The minimum
contribution will be $50.00 per year.
The following news item has been received from Dr. G.W. Klontz and I am taking the liberty of reproducing it for your information:
Dr. Kenneth Neil Gray became Texas A&M University's first Aquatic Animal Medicine graduate when he received the Master of Science degree in May, 1971.
The San Antonio, Texas, native was awarded the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Texas A&M University in 1969. He began his graduate work in Veterinary Microbiology studying under the guidance of Dr. George W. Klontz, Associate Professor of Veterinary Microbiology and Head of Texas A&M's Aquatic Animal Medicine program. His thesis was entitled "Some Serologic Aspects of the Immune Response in the Atlantic Bottle-Nosed Porpoise, Tursiops truncatus.”
Texas A&M University currently has the only veterinary college in the country to offer formal training in Aquatic Animal Medicine at the graduate level.
This newsletter is an informal publication of the IAAAM distributed exclusively for the information of its members and is not to be reproduced, cited, reference or in anyway referred to as part of the scientific literature.
The Sea Grant Program, of which the Aquatic Animal Medicine program is a part, was patterned after the Morrill Act which established the nation's land grant colleges. It is the broadest educational mandate for marine affairs ever created by Congress.
Although no Sea Grant Colleges have been named yet, Texas A&M University is one of eleven institutions receiving broad-based support under a Federal program administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Sea Grant is concerned with the development of offshore minerals, drugs, engineering technology, transportation, recreation, ports and harbors, and environmental quality, whereas the land grant program emphasized food production. The College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University is addressing its efforts to the various aspects of health and disease in those animals residing in water, be it fresh or salt, for the majority of their lives. The animals included in this group are marine mammals, amphibians, fish and shellfish.
Dr. Gray is now assistant general manager and veterinarian, Sea-Arama Marineworld, Galveston, Texas.
The joint AVMA-CVMA-IAAAM meeting was, I believe, reasonably successful. We had an audience throughout the morning that averaged about 50 persons. It was nice that Dr. Farrell could be there to preside. We had prior information that Dr. Farrell may he hospitalized during the meeting.
Some of our decreased attendance may have been attributed to a simultaneous meeting on reptiles.
Our business meeting was also badly scheduled as there were two papers dealing with aquatic animal medicine at the same time. Perhaps in the future More effort will be spent on scheduling. There were 5 people at the meeting.
The morning session, as I said above, was reasonably successful. My presentation was (?) received, my own criticism was that some of the slides I showed when previewed in my office were O.K.; however, at the distance and size of the auditorium were grossly inadequate. I will have to try a new system of selection or else bear the brunt of dissatisfaction and criticism. Dr. Hubbard's presentation was well received and stimulated a great deal of interest. He did not know how the epidemic affected the Sea Lion population but said that such studies are underway. Dr. G.W. Klontz as usual gave a very interesting and amusing presentation, those who have not heard his "fish puns" have something to look forward to. Dr. Daniel's presentation was very interesting and well presented. He did a great deal of very detailed investigation on the developing embryo. Dr. Kim had some interesting things to say; however, very few heard him and no one could see most of his slides, etc. Dr.'s Keyes' and Spencer's talks were interesting and timely. The talk on "Seal Slaughter" attracted much attention and discussion.
I have just received Report #1 from Dr. D.W. Kenney dealing with the captive California Grey Whale calf at Sea World, San Diego. The calf was legally captured on March 13, 1971 in Scammons Lagoon, Mexico. At the time of capture, Gigi was 18 feet 2 inches long and weighed 4300 pounds. On May 28, 1971 she was 19 feet 10 inches long and weighed 5525 pounds and apparently is thriving beautifully. Many physiological tests are being conducted on her. Dr. Kenney should be commended for his effort on this pioneering project on the California Grey Whale in captivity. The basic data obtained should, and I am sure will, prove invaluable to the scientific community.
W. Medway
This newsletter is an informal publication of the IAAAM distributed exclusively for the information of its members and is not to be reproduced, cited, reference or in anyway referred to as part of the scientific literature.