Portobello Diary

[Jean]

NZMSC & Portobello Aquarium wins an award!

Message we received from our manager Tessa, so good I had to share!

"I've just received an email to confirm that the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre has achieved an Enviro-Gold award! (see www.qualmark.co.nz/responsibletourism.php)

When we were evaluated by Qualmark late in 2009 we were told we had scored 100%, but the report then had to go to a panel in the UK to decide whether we had earned an Enviro award as well as the Qualmark endorsement."

Enviro-Gold is their highest award we are all just over the moon! Lots of hard work has paid off!

J

 

[bluespotocto]

congrats

 

[CaptFish]

Awesome! Congrats.

 

[DWhatley]

Terrific! Nice to see recognition for positive efforts.

 

[Nancy]

Congratulations! Could you please tell us a little bit more about this award?

Nancy

 

[Jean]

It's an award for responsible tourism, so we have to show that we are recycling, power conserving (fun in an aquarium!), and generally reducing our footprint, we need to show ongoing staff training etc

Qualmark is a quality assurance register, businesses are assessed annually on their commitment to quality, If you see the qualmark symbol you can be assured of a good experience. Again there is a whole bunch of achievements we must make, such as ongoing guiding training (all our staff do ATTTO http://www.attto.org.nz/ training, which trains guides amongst other things)

 

[monty]

congrats!

 

[Jean]

Here is fidgety doing his blob thing!

 

[Jean]

he got out last night! was found mooching round the drains..............some one left the tank doors ajar

Back in tank now tho'

 

[Ryan Smith]

Thats so cool, How big is FF now?

 

[Jean]

just under 2m arm spread, mantle a bit bigger than a rugby ball, say 35-40 cm long, haven't tried to weigh him! The sea star in the lower pic is about 40 cm in diameter

 

[DWhatley]

Goodly sized beast! Who had to pick him up when he escaped and how do you encourage an escapee out of the drain into a bucket (I know you guys have this down pat by now )?

 

[Jean]

Whoever is on duty gets the job of getting him back in the tank! We use a LARGE net and place it behind him, then move in front of him, if all goes well he'll back into the net and we can either place him in a bucket or fish bin or flip him directly back in the tank, depending on how far he's got!

 

[DWhatley]

That would make a terrific video (might want the sound on mute though)

 

[Jean]

Check out our facebook page, there is a pic of John (one of our staff) returning a most grumpy octopus to his tank from the next door tank, where he was helping himself to some extra crabs! John is using the arm grab method!