Finding, Breeding, Selling Nemo

This article can be found at http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/11/01/breeding_nemo_maine_lab_flourishes/?page=full

    Here’s a bizarre subject for a feature piece: the breeding of saltwater tropical fish in captivity. Kelli Whitlock Burton writes about one man’s booming new business of breeding and selling saltwater tropical fish, a process that has traditionally been very difficult. His name is Soren Hansen, a graduate student from the University of Maine, and he is the subject of this feature story.

    The piece moves fairly well. This is a difficult subject to engage the reader in because it is so obscure and irrelevant, but Burton does well in keeping up the pace and making it somewhat interesting. Perhaps the best thing Burton does to answer the reader’s inevitable “so-what!-who-cares?” question is to link the tropical fish breeding with things that the general public would know/care about, like the US fish industry: “The ornamental fish industry is a billion-dollar enterprise in the United States, but the sale of saltwater aquarium fish has historically made up only a small part of that trade.” Burton also notes how the hit Disney movie “Finding Nemo” sparked a huge increase in colorful tropical fish sales—similar to what “101 Dalmatians” did for Dalmatian sales. Such details can connect the reader to the story and capture his/her attention (at least for a little bit.)