A thread on fish

[Croghan27]

Cod story.

Cod are ugly. Flat noses and big mouthed they look like a fighter that should have retired years before.

After the film Jaws a lot of attention was paid to Great White Sharks. (The largest in the world, at that time, was caught off southern New Brunswick.) The son of the owner of Gimbles in New York, with lots of time and more money made a film called Blue Water: White Death. (I see it was before Jaws.)

In it he searches for Great Whites .... one thing he does is buy a dead whale off S. Africa and leave it for the sharks to feast upon. A very scary and impressive scene underwater.

In another segment he is following a large Great White that comes upon some food upon the bottom. As friend shark goes to eat it .... a CODFISH emerges from its' hole and attacks the shark - the prize was its' dinner and it was not about to share with man nor beast. The shark was obviously dazzled that something other than another shark would dispute to for food.

Cod grow to a respectable size, but nothing compared to the sharks ... but the pugnacious cod actually chased away this ultimate killing machine of the oceans from its' lunch.

[Boom Boom]

Amazing story, Croggy. It fits in with what I know about sharks, that they're not the fierce beasts of popular fiction. There's a recent movie called Sharkwater I think it is, where folks go into water full of sharks and swim with them. Certainly changed my perception of them.

[Holly Stick]

The world may have passed "peak fish".
 

We're running out of fish and we're fast running out of new places to find fish.  A joint Canada/U.S./Australia study released by the peer-reviewed science information site, PloS, concludes that global fishing has burgeoned so rapidly over the past half century that the world fleets are running out of places to fish, places that is where the historic fisheries have not already been collapsed...

http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/2010/12/were-running-out-of-fish-and-were-fast.html
 
He doesn't link to the article, but the website he mentions looks very interesting: (Public Library of Science):
 
http://www.plosone.org/home.action

http://www.plos.org/index.php
 
Here is the actual paper:
 
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0015143

[skdadl]

This just makes me feel desperate. I have to eat fish; I just do. Fish r moi.

Is it ok that I'm old and won't be eating ur fish all that much longer? Can I get a pass?

[Holly Stick]

I dunno what to say; maybe you will have to pay more for it in future.  As if our food prices don't keep going up anyway.

[Croghan27]

Fear not ..... New Brunswick to the rescue:
 
   

   The Connors Bros. is investing $12 million into the last sardine processing operation left in North America in a move that will save roughly 1,000 jobs but abandon its traditional canning methods.
 

I believe that the fishing is done by off shore boats .... and bought by the cannery, but the cannery, now owned by British interests, is still going strong.

[Antonia]

Inside the Mind of an Octopus 

I am gonna start picketing Greek restaurants.

[greenvie]

Inside the Mind of an Octopus 

I am gonna start picketing Greek restaurants.

That was heart-warming to read, Antonia!  Thanks. After reading much on #mencallmethings today, which was uplifting in the brilliant courage of the many writings I found, this article made this planet seem somehow more like home.

How do you prove the intelligence of someone so different?”

...But size doesn’t always match smarts. As is well known in electronics, anything can be miniaturized. Small brain size was the evidence once used to argue that birds were stupid—before some birds were proven intelligent enough to compose music, invent dance steps, ask questions, and do math.

[Boom Boom]

Inside the Mind of an Octopus 

I am gonna start picketing Greek restaurants.

Probably should send that article off to The Food Network, because they are part of the effort to make octopi a more popular food trend.
 
ETA: Just posted the article to my Facebook page, with a H/T to AZ.

[Alison]

I haven't been able to eat octopus since I saw footage of one figuring out how to open a screw jar while another octopus was watching through a glass barrier. When the second octopus was then presented with the jar, he opened it immediately, having learned from watching the first one do it.


A shame both male and female octopi die a genetically programmed death soon after bearing young, otherwise they could pass on all the wonderful things they have learned.

[lagatta]

Well, except for the vegetarians here, pretty much all of us have eaten sentient beings - and even some of the vegetarians buy animal-based food for their carnivorous pets. What horrifies me about octopus is HOW it is often killed, beating it to death on rocks.

I suppose calamari (one of my favourite foods) is just as bad?

[Boom Boom]

It's a great article, and the comments are good, too. I liked this:   

"Fabulous article. Why is it we are surprised that other creatures think? Ours is only one consciousness amongst many. But articles like this are beautiful reminders of the majesty and mystery of life."   
 
 
 
 

[Toedancer]

The 'playful' part is very exciting. And indeed the colour changing, it would really feel 'alien' to get into it's mind.

[sparqui]

Well I got tears in my eyes when I read the part of Athena dying.  Amazing article.

[Toedancer]

Ottawa moves against PEI lab that reported virus in B.C. salmon http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ottawa-moves-against-pei-lab-that-reported-virus-in-bc-salmon/article5582798/


The letter has surprised other experts, who worry the government is trying to silence a scientist whose findings the CFIA disputes.“This is stunning news,” said Rick Routledge, a professor at Simon Fraser University, who sent the lab samples that showed a ISA virus was present on the Pacific coast. “This comes as a shock. . . my head is spinning. I had no idea they would take it that far,” he said.