Basking Sharks

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Superstrath

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On the Beeb at lunchtime, it said that due to increasing water temperatures, basking sharks are now frequenting the South-West Coast of England, and have even been spotted in Scotland!!
What bo££ocks. The basking shark has been hunted by successful fisheries in Scotland since the 18th century, in fact the last fishery only closed in 1995 (IIRC). Any of us sailing the Clyde or the West Coast will have seen them, it seems we saw more ten years ago than we do nowadays (many mentions elsewhere on the fora). They are most certainly not a new phenomenon brought about by warming. I'm not quite 100% convinced about the global warming thing and cr@p like this does not improve the case of the doom-sayers.
There.
 
agree with you about global warming - its the saying of the decade used to explain all phenomena and excuse a lot of crap science.

It is perfectly possible to interpret the weather over the last 50 years and claim that it is only the carbon dioxide levels caused by fossil fuel burning etc and resulting cloud layers that has prevented the onset of another ice age.
 
NOW SEE HERE!!!!

If that poor little rich kid Mr Goodsmith (Zak oti) says it's GLOBAL WARMING then it IS GLOBAL WARMING.

If he has the goodness to descend from his Ivory Tower bought with inherited wealth to say so then you should be grateful for the consideration.

OK so he doesn't live frugally on a few beans or wear home made sandals but the Blair establishment likes him!

Steve Cronin
 
Re: NOW SEE HERE!!!!

I quite agree. If the Government say so, that should be good enough for anybody.
Anyway, I read about it in the newspaper so it must be true.

Dan
 
I've seen the in the Channel for as long as I've been sailing. They're amazing close up.

Do you think that if all these environ mentalists had a proper job instead of mealworm measuring, cormorant counting and watching polar bears shagging that this problem might get approached with a bit of perspective.

We could of course do what environ mentalist want. Give up our cars, our power stations and our cheap flights. That would mean that while we were stumbling around in the dark waiting for a horsedrawn bus the rest of the world could get on with good old consumerism. We'll be to knackered from the walking to notice the the end of the world then.
 
well certainly seen Basking Sharks off Skye when I was a pre-teenage kid, so that's a long time ago

On the other hand, the national science institutes of all G8 countries(who are independent of governments) plus a few other major nations, previously against the idea, have now all banded together to state that global warming is a real issue.

These people have access to real research, not the latest gov or newspaper spin. So why have they taken this stance? There is a lot of evidence, not much reliably quoted on the press
 
Global warming is very possibly a real phenomena, however it's causes and possible cures are subject to wild speculation.

You can pretty much come up with anything you like to suit whatever cause you want to forward.

For example:

Fact one: CO2 acts as a heat trapping gas. Plankton accounts for half of the transer of CO2 back into the biosphere by photosythesis therefore reducing the rate it accumulates and significantly helping to mitigate global warming. Nasa satellite studies since the late 1970's have shown that plankton levels have declined substantially since the 1980's.

Fact two: In 1946 the International Whaling Commission was established to provide for the proper conservation of whales. However, it was not until the scientific basis for sustainable management was developed and implemented that effective restrictions were introduced. Additionally, there had been major falsification of the true catch records, so in 1982 the IWC agreed to give total protection from commercial hunting to all whale stocks.

Fact three: Whales eat plankton in enormous quantities.

Pseudo scientific conclusion: The protection of whales began in earnest in the early 1980's. Studies from Nasa satelittes show that since this period there has been a substantial drop in plankton levels. Given that whales are a major consumer of plankton and that their numbers have steadily increased since 1982 due to conversation, it is logical to assume that the drop in plankton levels is due to the ever inceasing consumption by a growing whale population. The 14% & drop in the North Atlantic and 30% drop in the North Pacific represents a substantial reduction in plankton's overall capability to recycle CO2 and is the most significant contributory factor to increased CO2 levels and therefore global warming.

Action plan: To lift the restrictions on whaling and start hunting whales again in earnest to get those plankton levels back up so that they can carry on regulating the planet like they did for millennia until 1982.
 
Re: Global warming is the motherload

if your a moss botherer or a termite counter. It's a bit like the war on terrorism. It frightens people and governments into giving you money and status and believing anything you say, no matter how dull or stupid it is.

Can you imagine how important some third division expert on the fornication of Starlings feels if he's quoted in the press. Then he realises that nobody can argue with his findings because a. they know [--word removed--] all about anything, b. they're all on the same gravy train or c. they don't care.

Thats solid gold funding that is.
 
Future generations will owe a debt of gratitude to people like you that care enough about our planet to do something now /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Hope you use barbless, barbed are cruel.
 
Quite a lot of the abandoned equipment from the shark factory is still around Soay Harbour and quietly rusting away - including a large steam locomotive boiler! It looks really weird just sitting there - particularly with the Cuillin in the background.
 
Didn't a shark fishery feature in the fillum "When Eight Bells Toll"?

Akshully I'd like to see that agin, I would probably recognise a lot more of the scenery!
 
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