February 22, 2006

A Test

There is so much ignorance in this "news" story as to beggar belief:

An international team of scientists says the absence of sharks from abyssal regions of the world's oceans may mean some species are in danger of extinction.

The findings mean the world's oceans are about 70 percent shark-free, researchers said.

The oceans' abyssal zone remains in perpetual darkness at depths below 6,560 feet, with immense pressures of nearly five tons per square inch at its deepest.

It had been hoped that, as man explored deeper into the abyss, new shark species would be discovered. Scientists do not know why sharks are absent from the deep, but suggest one possible reason might be a lack of food.

They warn their finding has environmental implications. Professor Monty Priede, director of Oceanlab at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland said: "Sharks are already threatened worldwide by the intensity of fishing activity, but our finding suggests they may be more vulnerable to over-exploitation than was previously thought."

I leave it as an exercise to the reader to find at least three major holes in this "theory."

Posted by Charles Austin at February 22, 2006 07:12 PM
Comments

Good Lord, that made me want to hit myself on the head with a hammer. "Gee, I wonder why we can't find any new monkey species in Antarctica. It must be due to the fact that monkeys are in danger of extinction!!!"

Posted by: Andrea Harris at 07:25 PM

Heaven knows what might happen if we don't stop overfishing the abyss.

Posted by: charles austin at 11:39 PM

Wow, I'll bet not even Peter Benchley expected 30% of the ocean to be populated by sharks.

Posted by: charles austin at 07:34 PM

Ok, so we don't know that they were sharks at these depths before, but their absence has environmental implications. Gosh, doens't eveyrhting in nature have environmental implications? I'm shocked it wasn't blamed on ..., wait for it ..., global warming.

The depths (no pun intended) to which "science" has sunk are deeply (once again, no pun intended)depressing.

Posted by: charles austin at 07:40 PM

I might be misreading, but are you in the same post casting doubt over global warming while complaining over the state of science?

Posted by: Anders at 09:06 AM