Maria-Laura C. Harris was born in Santiago, Chile, and currently resides in Maryland with her husband Stowe. Her fascination with marine life started at age 4 while roaming through the frigid tidal pools off her family beach house in Chile, and consequently obtaining her first specimens. The fascination grew with time, and the totally addictive hobby of fishkeeping began at age 8 with a bowl containg one fan-tailed goldfish. Much to her parents astonishment by the time she entered the University of Maryland to obtain her BS in zoology, she had crammed 8 tanks (salt and fresh) into her small bedroom, and was financing her hobby by working at a local fish store.
Soon after acquiring her degree, Maria-Laura went to work for the National Aquarium in Baltimore where she eventually was responsible for the off-site holding facility and the pilot Tropical Marine Fish Fish Breeding Program, in which she worked closely with the University of Maryland Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) in researching methods for the successful propagation of marine fishes in captivity. Her most notable accomplishment is the successful propagation of the high hat, Equetus acuminatus, in a closed system environment. She has published several articles and given lectures on the importance of research into the field of marine fish propagation.
Currently Maria-Laura is pursuing graduate studies, working for a fish supply distributor, and is involved in the NetPets® project as the Senior Administrator of the Fish Section. Her home page can be found at http://www.geocities.com/~chilehot/ which shows off her other passion: wildlife art. She can be reached by email at underh20@ix.netcom.com.
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