Before coral frags had names. Before polyps sold for hundreds of dollars apiece. Before any of that — there was Blane Perun, and a colony of zoanthids he acquired by chance in 2001.

What happened next shaped the entire modern reef hobby. Blane founded Farms of the Sea, the world’s first website selling captive-propagated corals worldwide. He identified, cultivated, and sold the Purple People Eater — a Zoanthus gigantus color morph that Reef2Reef formally documented as “the catalyst for the naming trend and the $$$$ per polyp sales” that define the zoanthid collector market to this day.

He was publishing authoritative reef content before most hobbyists had broadband. His article on Sea Mat appeared in Volume 1, Issue 1 of WetWebMedia’s Conscientious Aquarist — the reef hobby’s first online magazine. He contributed to FAMA (Freshwater and Marine Aquarium) and SeaScope, two of the most respected print publications in the hobby. Julian Sprung, author of Corals, visited Blane personally. Miguel Tolosa dedicated his book Practical Coral Farming to Blane for inspiring the work.

TheSea.Org — now in its 27th year — is the living record of that passion. Over 2,500 original articles on coral reefs, marine biology, ocean exploration, shipwrecks, marine mammals, and the underwater world. Every word written by Blane Perun, informed by decades of first-hand experience beneath the surface.

Blane’s expertise is earned underwater. Over 25+ years of diving he has explored coral reefs, shipwrecks, and marine ecosystems across the globe. His underwater photography — shot in Pro Mode on a Samsung Note 5 — documents first-hand observations that inform every article on TheSea.Org.