It’s like watching toothless dogs fight …

I recall early in my academic career one of my adjunct supervisors preparing me for what was going to be an uncomfortable presentation (I had to speak to a group of scientists who would strongly disagree with what we were examining). He used the following similie to try to prepare me for what was going to happen:

You don’t need to worry, as this is going to be a lot like being attacked by a toothless dog. There’s going to be a lot of fury and yapping, but at the end of the day, all you’ll have is some saliva on your pant leg.

Those words have stuck with me over the years, and they bubbled to the surface of my consciousness as I read the following exchange between two young-earth creationist cooks.

(Via this DKos post.)

Technorati Tags:
science, creation, evolution

Pollution in the North Sea: plastic in 95% of dead birds

From the Scotsman, we hear that a recent study has found that 95% of dead fulmars from the North Sea had plastic in their stomachs.

The headline is slightly misleading as it implies that 95% of all the dead birds from a certain area were found to have plastic in their stomachs, while the study focussed on a single species. Despite this, the incredibly high percentage highlights the issues surrounding pollution of the North Sea.

Technorati Tags:

science, ecology, pollution

Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources campaigns against exotics

Ontario has made it illegal to import or sell a variety of fish species, including:

• live bighead carp
• black carp
• silver carp
• grass carp
• and all snakehead species

This ban does not extend to live fish markets, but obliges all mongers to kill their fish before giving them to a customer.

Technorati Tags: exotic, fish, science

Easy ecospheres …

Open2.net DIY Science Eco-sphere has instructions on how you can roll your own ecosphere or self-contained ecosystem. Having read through the instructions for the ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ versions, I’d say that their instructions for the marine ecosphere will likely work, while the vivarium will almost certainly fail.
They’ve relied quite heavily on known ecological dynamics for their recommendations on the marine ecosystem, while their suggestion that you

“[t]ry to choose plants that fit into your environment. If it’s a small environment only use small growing species. If you put too many plants in expect some deaths.”

Finally, step 7 has me absolutely convinced that this set-up is headed for a detritivores paradise in no time:

This is the fun bit…. choosing some animals. You might want to include some woodlice, worms, ants, aphids, black fly – or anything you can find in your garden. Have a think about the size of your animals in your system. We added snails to ours, and after two days took them out again – they ate too much!

And, they own up to the fact that their instructions won’t work with the posting of results here. By week two, they have an increasingly hypoxic environment with CO₂ levels that are through the roof. So, I guess this can be considered self-sustaining in the sense that little to nothing will live or grow in this system.

Technorati Tags: ecology, science

Cod fishery news

Let’s not let little things like facts and history get in our way.

A bunch of politicians feel that despite declining abundances, the Newfoundland cod fishery should stay open. Instead of imposing a moratorium as in 1992, the committee recommends instead increasing the seal quotas, which should sell very well on the east coast. The only problem with this idea is the fact that most recent research suggests that cod stocks are not impacted by seal predation in any meaningful way. Why extirpate one species when you can nail two, I guess.

Technorati Tags: cod

Exotic species

More exotic species

I’m not sure what’s up in the karmic bureaucracy in the sky, but someone has a serious hate on for the fauna in North American lakes. First, we had the stories about the impending invasion of lake Erie by the asian carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and H. molitrix, and now we hear of the invasion of the southern U.S. by the snakehead fish. This fish (Channa argus) is highly carnivorous and aggressive, and can even survive on land for up to three days without access to water. It has been making its way from pond to pond throughout Maryland and other states, and has the local wildlife officials very concerned about the native species.

This species was likely introduced by accident by someone either in the aquarium trade or someone who purchased the fish live for food. Apparently, it can be easily purchased in asian stores in both New York and Boston. The threat to local wildlife has prompted the U.S. federal government to consider classifying the species such that importation and transport would be illegal. Seems to be a great idea to me.
Technorati Tags: fish, exotic