| April 3, 2017 For Public Release: 8am Eastern, April 4, 2017
Contact: Rob Mougey
Rob.Mougey@MASNA.org
MASNA Aquarist of the Year 2017: Nominations Now Open
 Annually, MASNA awards the prestigious Aquarist of the Year award to a deserving individual for their work in helping shape and influence the marine aquarium hobby. Together with MASNA, previous winners of the Aquarist of the Year award confer to decide who has given the most to the hobby and industry to be deserving of that year’s award. The 2017 nomination process is now under way and will remain open through the month of April for MASNA members. This year’s winner will receive their award at MACNA in New Orleans.The Aquarist of the Year award is announced each year at MACNA (Marine Aquarium Conference of North America) and awarded during the Saturday banquet. Our 2016 winner was Joe Yaiullo, whose award was given at MACNA in San Diego, California.
 For 2016, Joe Yaiullo was awarded the MASNA Aquarist of the Year award for his continued support of the hobby as well as his pioneering efforts in establishing public aquaria outreach through his 20,000-gallon reef tank at the Long Island Aquarium. Joe remains actively involved in promoting reef keeping and working with hobbyists, he also served as president of the Long Island Reef Association (LIRA) for 12 years.
Joe, an admitted “Coralaholic”, currently feeds his ever increasing addiction with nurturing his 20,000 gallon reef tank, which contains corals that date back over 26 years. While he has admitted his addiction, he has no plans of seeking a cure and enjoys talking with reef keepers from around the world.
Joe has been featured in many reef keeping books and magazines, and has presented lectures in Canada, Germany, Sweden, Finland, England, Fiji, Monaco, France, The Netherlands, and Italy and throughout the USA including several MACNA’s dating back to 1994. Truly, Joe is a wonderful example of an extremely accomplished marine aquarist, and the personification of what is the Aquarist of the Year.
MASNA is a non-profit organization composed of marine aquarium clubs, individual hobbyists, and industry partners from North America and abroad, totaling several thousand individuals.
MASNA’s goals are to:
• Educate our members with online and published material, the MACNA conference, and other sanctioned events,
• Assist in forming and promoting the growth of clubs within the hobby while ensuring a sustainable future for the marine environment,
• Support the efforts to eliminate abuses in collecting and transporting marine organisms through education, assistance and encouragement,
• Encourage the ethical growth of the marine aquarium hobby and support captive breeding/propagation efforts.
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San Diego Marine Aquarists (SDMA) 