This is Typical Of A Scientist, To Me

SlowwHand · October 23, 2003, 21:09

I'm waiting to see who's the first geek to say this is an excellent idea.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Scientists Conduct First-Ever Fish Census
Thu Oct 23, 5:57 PM ET

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Scuttling and floating almost two miles below the North Atlantic are a ghostly, foot-tall octopod with fins sprouting from its head, a soft coral with starry feathers and a flower-like creature with the body of a worm.

Researchers showed otherworldly film of those and other creatures Thursday, demonstrating an unprecedented marine census that is discovering more than 30 new species of animal and plant life every week. And those three don't even necessarily count.

"They can't even be described as a new species until we have a specimen," Mike Vecchione, a Smithsonian biologist, said of the deep-sea dive footage publicly screened for the first time at the National Museum of Natural History.

Scientists reporting their first findings since the project began in May 2000 said that by the time they're finished in 2010, they may have found more than 2 million different species of marine life.

"People have tended to look where it's easy ... and there's so much more to be found," said Jesse Ausubel, environmental scientist at The Rockefeller University in New York City. "We have discriminated in the past in favor of a very small number of species."

Three hundred scientists from 53 countries are working on the decade-long census to learn the number of different species and catalogue them. So far, the Census of Marine Life includes 15,304 different species of fish and 194,696 to 214,696 — there's disagreement among the experts — species of animals and plants.

So far, the research is coming up with about 150 to 200 previously unknown species of fish and 1,700 new species of other aquatic animals and plants each year.

The scientists said they believe the oceans that extend across 70 percent of Earth's surface hold about 20,000 species of fish and up to 1.98 million species of animals and plants. Many of those could be basic and small life forms, such as worms and jellyfish.

"We've tended to be interested in the things that we eat," said Ausubel, who helps run the census for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which provided $20 million in funding. "We've tended not to be interested in the things that pass through our nets or don't taste good. But the small critters are tremendously important in the ecosystem ... and in an evolutionary sense, the small things came first. They're ancient, and they're survivors."

Scientists hope to gain a better understanding of life in the mostly unexplored seas. Environmentalists are looking to the data to counter overfishing and pollution that has depleted the ocean's resources. Industry hopes it will lead to more efficient fishing and shipping, new pharmaceuticals and industrial compounds.

"We have primarily studied a few hundred species that are of commercial importance," said Ronald O'Dor, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Canada and the project's chief scientist.

"Our goal by 2010 is to know as much about life in the oceans as we know about life on land now," he said. "No one would claim that we know everything about life on land. There are probably still a few hundred thousand beetles in tropical forests that haven't been described. But we'd like to aim for parity."

The project grew from scientists' concerns following a 1995 National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites) report that human population growth was quickly changing the diversity of life in the oceans, possibly irreversibly.

So far, about $70 million has been spent on the census. Its price tag eventually is expected to reach $1 million, most of it from participating governments.

"We know we won't have counted every animal," said J. Frederick Grassle, director of Rutgers University's Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences, the chairman of the project's scientific steering committee.

SlowwHand · October 23, 2003, 21:10

"So far, about $70 million has been spent on the census. Its price tag eventually is expected to reach $1 million, most of it from participating governments."

MUST mean 1 BILLION. Damned dumb scientists.

Nubclear · October 23, 2003, 21:28

This truely is a great idea.

Asher · October 23, 2003, 21:30

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Damned dumb scientists.

Associated press writer = Scientist?

Verto · October 23, 2003, 21:34

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher

Associated press writer = Scientist?

Maybe both: one for the typo, the other for requesting that sum for this.

St Leo · October 23, 2003, 21:37

Sloww, non-glamourous things can be useful.

SlowwHand · October 23, 2003, 21:40

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher

Associated press writer = Scientist?

Let me guess. You think a sports writer, food critic, or other wrote the article?
You don't think maybe he has a background in, oh I don't know, science maybe?

Asher · October 23, 2003, 21:46

I'd very much doubt it. I'd imagine the guy has journalism degree.

Trust me, reading all of the computer stuff in the paper and it's OBVIOUS that 99% of these people don't come from a computer background. So I very much doubt the other comes from a science background, but rather journalism.

st_swithin · October 24, 2003, 01:07

At least we're finally getting around to being interested in planet earth. After all the money we've spent on getting out into space, knowing that we can't even live long enough to reach most of the nearby planets, let alone study or inhabit them, it's nice to know we've started seeking intelligent alien life forms in our own backyard.

I've often wondered if some of those deep-sea crinoids might not be alien life forms from some other planet that landed in the ocean and managed to find some ecological niche in which to thrive. They were smart enough to stay the he11 away from the humans, that's for sure.

After all, our planet does foster specialists and adapters in all things, from beetles to computer hardware.

MichaeltheGreat · October 24, 2003, 01:16

Considering the amount of food and other resources harvested from the sea, and the commercial value and economic benefits thereof, this is not only a great idea, but long overdue and should be updated on a regular basis.

Lancer · October 24, 2003, 01:34

If you go fishing you screw up the findings?

Lancer · October 24, 2003, 01:37

"They were smart enough to stay the he11 away from the humans, that's for sure."

This could be because they are all very wise, or because they are just dumb assed fish.

Starchild · October 24, 2003, 09:52

Note to self: pass all future ideas for useful, longterm, overdue scientific projects that may have huge payoffs by Sloww first so he can tell the collective scientific establishment that one nutter in Texas knows more than they do. Check.

SlowwHand · October 24, 2003, 10:16

Quote:

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Considering the amount of food and other resources harvested from the sea, and the commercial value and economic benefits thereof, this is not only a great idea, but long overdue and should be updated on a regular basis.

I'm not surprised on hearing this drivel from you, but I AM surpriced you were so brief in your reply.

And starchild, this won't include you.
starFISH, maybe.

Chemical Ollie · October 24, 2003, 10:54

This is an excellent idea.

As a scientist AND a game fishing fanatic, I would love to help them catch a specimen of a yet unknown species. I just have to get a line that's 3000 meters long...

(The deepest fishing I've done was from 300 meters. Took 5 minutes just for the bait to sink all the way down, and was a nightmare to wind back in, not to mention the struggle of bringing 19 kg of ugly fish to the surface)

Japher · October 24, 2003, 11:38

Hmmm...

I think this a great idea, Sloww.

The animal kingdom has supplied manking with many things other than just worthy prey. Cures for diseases, cancer, and the like as well as means for slave labor, farming, and the like. Perhaps one of these strange creatures can help find the cure for AIDS or prevent tomato crops from freezing... You never know. Understanding the world around us takes us one step closer to understand ourselves... And we fully understand humanity, we can create humans and become GODS!!!!!

MikeH · October 24, 2003, 11:40

Yeah but you could buy a ****load of bombs with a billion dollars.

chequita guevara · October 24, 2003, 11:43

Other scientific ideas Sloww may not think are good ideas: the world is round and is not the center of the universe, penicillin, flight, the telephone, computers, the internet, the list is endless.

SlowwHand · October 24, 2003, 11:51

Blow me, Che.

Japher sounds like Jacque Cousteau.

MikeH · October 24, 2003, 11:54

Sloww - without science we wouldn't have six shooters or pickup trucks.

SlowwHand · October 24, 2003, 11:59

Good point, Mike.

Hurrah for Scientists!

Oerdin · October 24, 2003, 12:02

Now you are talking in a language he can understand.

chequita guevara · October 24, 2003, 12:25

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Blow me, Che.

I'm not MrFun.

SlowwHand · October 24, 2003, 12:33

Something told me you would say something like that.

st_swithin · October 25, 2003, 18:53

The bigger the hair, the smaller the town.

MichaeltheGreat · October 25, 2003, 19:10

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowwHand

I'm not surprised on hearing this drivel from you, but I AM surpriced you were so brief in your reply.

And for your meat and taters diet, Tex, all you need to do is stick your nose out of your trailer long enough to say "Yeah, they're still fertilizin' the fields."

For the rest of the world, it's a tad more involved.

SlowwHand · October 25, 2003, 20:01

Ooohhh. Getting wiseass in your old age, are you?

Kuciwalker · October 25, 2003, 20:03

Quote:

Originally posted by St Leo
Sloww, non-glamourous things can be useful.

The fact that they can doesn't mean that they are. I'd say this isn't.

st_swithin · October 26, 2003, 17:58

Quote:

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
(The deepest fishing I've done was from 300 meters. Took 5 minutes just for the bait to sink all the way down, and was a nightmare to wind back in, not to mention the struggle of bringing 19 kg of ugly fish to the surface)

Oh, so you're the guy who reeled in that last coelocanth?