You can save some money by joining LIRA, yearly due is $25 and the discounted NERAC ticket is $35.
Membership card gets you 10% discount at few LFS on the island, monthly meetings with some good speakers, local fish collection trip and a family day at Atlantis Aquarium.
Either way the money paid for the conferance will be well worth it, if it is like last year's. I had a good two days at Atlantis.