Our meeting with a Florida Marine pioneer & collector

My wife and I just returned from a vacation to the Florida Keys and while we were there had the opportunity to visit Henry Feddern and his marine animal collection business.  I had seen an article on Henry in the May/June edition of Coral magazine and when I realized he lived only a few miles from where we were staying I emailed him to see if we could see his operation while we were “in town”.    Henry is a pioneer in marine life captivation and preservation in Florida (the article is a good read) for the past 50 years!





He called me and said we were welcome to visit so naturally we jumped at the chance so I thought I would share the pictures with GIRS.  The first day we went there he was apologetic because he had just filled a large order and didn’t have much livestock in his holding tanks (he typically waits to collect animals until he has an order).  Even so, we were impressed with his operation which is run out of the lower level of his home.  He has a natural ‘river’ that flows between the ocean and a saltwater lake that goes right by his house.  Just looking at all the fish and life in the river itself was enough to make us jealous!  He collects many types of sponges and gorgonians as well as urchins, peppermint shrimp, horseshoe crabs, snails and, of course, fish. 






Here are some pics of the inverts and fish:






Yellow headed Jawfish (which Henry has propigated)








On the first day we were there we were discussing the lionfish “invasion” of the gulf and Atlantic which is wreaking havoc on the indigenous reef species (some local restaurants serve them and one we patronized would give a free t-shirt if you brought in 3 lionfish).  He told us didn’t have any lions at the moment but that there is a lot of color variation in the ones he collects.  The very next day, he called us again and said he had collected a number of lionfish if we wanted to stop by and see them – didn’t have to tell us twice! 




Here are some pics of that second visit:









This next picture is a little blurry but had to include it as I've never seen a lion this black before:





We also got to meet his wife Gail and sample some of their “homegrown” mangrove honey.  In fact it was so good we bought a ½ gallon to bring home!  Henry and Gail are very nice folks and we were really glad we had the opportunity to meet them and see their facility.  It is nice to see where some of our livestock come from and know there are people in the other end of the supply chain who share the same passion for the care of the livestock and the preservation of our natural resources and the coral reefs.

 

It was great!  We were in Key Largo and  Henry lives in Tavernier which is about 10 miles from the town of Key Largo.