The Merseyside Aquarium Society

Abstract

ONE of the most extensive collections of British fresh-water aquaria and aquatic and river-side vegetation, in addition to foreign aquaria, has lately been brought together by the Merseyside Aquarium Society at its aquarium at Cliff House, Wallasey, which was opened by the Mayor of Wallasey in March 1932. The collection, which now comprises some sixty tanks, is claimed to be the most extensive of its kind in the North of England, and situated in extensive glass-houses, is largely the result of much hard work by enthusiasts in all classes of life in an effort to establish a really efficient scientific and public aquarium on Merseyside. The Merseyside Aquarium Society was instituted in 1926, largely through the efforts of Mr. F. Jefferies, a past president of the Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club, and incorporated in 1930, and its first president was the late Prof. James Johnstone. The president of the Society is Alderman A. H. Evans of Wallasey, the vice-presidents Prof. J. H. Orton, professor of zoology in the University of Liverpool, W. S. Laverock, lately of the Liverpool Museums, and Alderman D. R. Charlesworth, ex-mayor of Wallasey, and the honorary secretary, Mr. F. Jefferies. By a system of exchange, the Cliff Aquarium has acquired a number of valuable exhibits from the New York Aquarium Society, and it has lately been successful in breeding and rearing the axolotl (Amblystoma) to maturity. The present premises have been loaned the Society by the Wallasey Corporation, but the Aquarium is only considered a nucleus for a much larger building which it is hoped to have built as a municipal affair in the future. The Society issues a volume of Proceedings, holds six indoor meetings annually, and affords special help for the amateur aquarists, for the exchange of knowledge and experience amongst experts, and to promote school aquaria and vivaria.