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Host CommitteeCo-Chairs Chairs Elect Ladies and Gentlemen Committee Presenting Sponsors
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An Evening in MadagascarTHE GALAEach spring, the Aquarium and the conservation-focused residents of South Carolina gather together to demonstrate their commitment to preserving and protecting the beauty of the natural world. This year's celebration will honor the Aquarium's mission and celebrate the opening of the Aquarium's largest changing exhibit.
AFTER -AFFAIR If your taste prefers the evening activities, we recommend purchasing only an After Affair ticket. The 2012 South Carolina Aquarium Conservation Gala After-Affair will begin at 9 p.m. and feature lively tunes from DJ Moo Moo Mack and DJ PJ as well as cocktails and bites for the guests. Held in the Aquarium, guests will be able to wander through the new Madagascar Journey for a first look at the new exhibit. Formal cocktail attire. For questions, email tfitzgerald@scaquarium.org. Tickets
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Barbara Block is an American marine biologist and a professor in Marine Sciences Evolutionary, Cellular and Molecular Biology at Stanford University. She established the Tuna Research and Conservation Center with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She is a 1996 MacArthur Fellow and received the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. Block takes a multidisciplinary approach to studying how large pelagic fish live and travel in the open ocean. Using novel electronic tags, Block and her team track large predators — tunas, billfish and sharks — on their ocean journeys. She also studies how and why muscle makes heat at a molecular level in fish. Working out Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, Block and her colleagues combine tracking data with physiological and genetic analyses. Block (a MacArthur "genius" grant winner) is developing population and ecological models to help us understand these fishes' roles in the ocean ecosystem — and perhaps learn to better manage these important food fish. 
The Kiawah Conservancy is a chartered 501c(3) grassroots organization founded by island residents in 1997 to preserve the natural habitat of Kiawah Island. The Conservancy has the capability to be a holder of land and conservation easements and as such, it acts as a land trust. In this regard, the Conservancy is a member of the Land Trust Alliance and has adopted and subscribes to the Land Trust Standards and Practices as a guide for its operations. Since its inception in 1997, the Kiawah Conservancy has preserved 22 properties that total 329 acres of pristine barrier island habitat. The Conservancy utilizes several research programs to support its land preservation and management efforts: a bobcat GPS collar project to examine habitat use on Kiawah Island, incorporation of bobcat management guidelines to preserve appropriate habitats including denning areas, and painted bunting research to identify habitat needs for a rapidly declining population. The Conservancy also provides education to island residents to help preserve native species of plants and animals through appropriate landscaping. 
