Aquarists at work - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 206

Filling the job of collector was easy. Bob Kiwala and I had worked
together on several adventurous and successful collecting trips while
he was at the Scripps Aquarium. I definitely wanted him to join us in
Monterey.
Bob, however, was in Rarotonga in the South Pacific. Several years
before, while participating in a Scripps Institution of Oceanography
scientific cruise that stopped in the Cook Islands, he'd fallen in love
with the South Seas paradise. When the cruise ended, Bob packed his
hammock, a few topics, his cigars, and belongings and flew back to
Rarotonga. He rented a hut at the far end of the island for ten dollars
a month. It was idyllic and, knowing Bob, he must have fit in well with
the Cook Islanders. He met a young Cook Island woman and they had
a baby daughter.
I sent Bob a letter telling him about the exciting new aquarium in
Monterey and asked if he would become the chief collector. He said
he would—lacking a head for money matters, he may have discovered
he couldn't live on papayas, fresh fish, and love alone—but then he
kept putting o¤ the date when he would actually show up to begin the
job. Considering the lifestyle he was leaving behind in Rarotonga, I
really couldn't blame him for stalling.
Eventually, Bob made his way back to the States, moved to Monte-
rey, and started work. I'd hoped he would arrive in time to choose the
type of collecting boat and equipment he'd be using, but we had to get
started collecting the thousands of animals we needed by opening day.
I just couldn't wait for him any longer, so I went ahead and purchased
a trailerable, twenty-five-foot fiberglass Farallon boat. In honor of our
benefactors we named the boat Lucile after David Packard's wife.
I'd already prepared a list of all the species we would need, with ap-
proximate numbers, and I'd prioritized the animals according to har-
diness, natural longevity, and di‹culty collecting them. We would be-
gin with those fishes that would do well in holding tanks until the exhibit
tanks were ready for them. At that point, those first fishes would be
moved to the exhibits, making room in the now vacated holding tanks
for di¤erent species. It would be an ongoing fish-juggling act.
Critical to the success of this plan was a holding area that would be
fully functional well before the seawater system in the main building