Chris Jury


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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