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Chris Jury was always fascinated with living
things. In early childhood he was especially taken with dinosaurs
and other prehistoric animals. As he grew older living animals
(especially from exotic locales) intrigued him. His interests
led him to amass quite a menagerie of pets during his adolescent
and teenage years (much to the dismay of his parents). While
he enjoyed fishing and maintained freshwater aquaria for brief
periods over the years, it was not his passion. Fish were,
he began to think, a bit geeky.
At the age of 16 his family took a vacation in south Florida.
While he was familiar with coral reefs, had read a bit about
them, and thought they were intriguing, he had never seen
one in person. His first exposure was on a glass-bottomed
boat off of Key Largo, FL. The sea fans swaying in the current
and Stoplight parrotfish crunching at the reef substrate was
far more beautiful than he had ever imagined. He spent as
much time as he could in and around the water for the remainder
of that trip. Upon his return he read more about reefs and
even allowed himself to wander into the fish room at the local
pet shop. Before long he had set-up his first reef tank. He
has visited various reefs since then and hopes to be able
to continue to do so.
He has maintained coral reef aquaria for a number of years
and has also worked in retail aquarium shops off-and-on for
more than three years. He is an active member of several online
message boards and has given presentations on various aspects
of coral reef ecology to several groups. A member of the Honors
College at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI: GO
GREEN!), he is completing dual bachelors degrees
in zoology and Spanish and plans to pursue graduate work in
the area of coral reef ecology in the near future. He likes
fish now, but still maintains that he is not, in fact, a geek.
You can communicate with Chris on his
author forum at Reef Central.
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