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As Fish Stocks Collapse, Overpopulated Lobsters Resort to Cannibalism
The Maine lobster population is booming, but it turns out that's bad news if you're a little lobster: "'We've got the lobsters feeding back on themselves just because they're so abundant,' said Richard Wahle, a marine sciences professor at the University of Maine, who is supervising the research. 'It's never been observed just out in the open like this,' he said."
Abundance caused by populations of their predators collapsing.
Soylent Red is lobsters!!!!
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...is getting pinched.
If you want to order lobster in a restaurant they will still charge "Market Price."
I'm willing to help by eating some of those lobsters. Where do I sign up?
It's a worrisome development and means that overfishing is collapsing the local ecosystem.
It's no joke, and it's happening all over the world, the scenario is converging for a catastrophic decline in fish populations.
Mad lobster disease.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Why is Lobster still so expensive?
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If she finds out about this she will demand that we dine out at the local lobster restaurant until the fish/lobster balance is restored.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
no wonder it's called "wild" lobster. the boors.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Lobster fed lobster sounds delicious.
No wait. Hedge fund managers would eat their own young. Without salt.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
He wants to study cannibalism, huh? Just wait until PETA reads that juicy little line! They'll eat him alive.
Human Flesh, the only meat PETA will eat.
"His name was James Damore."
We go to the market and see the fish case always stocked. But the thing to realize, that as species are being fished out, they fill the case with other species. And prices on some species are skyrocketing.
Farming isn't very viable in many cases because they feed the farmed fish wild caught fish and the cages pollute the ecosystem so badly that the wild fish start to die out. Trout and Talpia are the only ones IIRC that are farmed sustainably - definitely not salmon.
And the thing that kills me, the next time you look at the fish case in the super market, bare in mind that at least half of what's in there will be thrown away.
We are so wasteful that it's just disgusting.
I hope this leaves enough cave lobster for my Dwarves!
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Agricultural and fishing subsidies are bad for everyone and everything except the people whose livelihoods being subsidized.
Everyone pays. We pay taxes to save people who don't want to submit to market discipline and find it easier to lobby lawmakers than switch away from failing business models. We pay below-the-odds for shit food that's bad for us (we eat WAY too much meat and corn syrup) and makes us fat; we pay more for medicine to treat people as a consequence. We pay for the negative externalities for the environmental destruction of the forests and oceans.
And we're shelling out for these fat pigs, while government budgets are under pressure everywhere. Killing subsidies is an easy fix.
We pay, pay, pay in every way, while a bunch of fat cat fishermen and agri-businessmen make out like bandits. Somebody needs to find the balls to put an end to this colossal scam, and have the courage to END all primary production subsidies everywhere, once and for all.
Why is this bad? It sounds to me like the population will control itself and there is built in limitations to the growth rate...who gives a shit what a little lobster does? They don't feel anything anyways!
There are no sea kittens involved, so that's OK with PETA.
lobster fed lobster stuffed with lobster.
I think we're approaching a fishcal cliff...
How much more do you have to pay to get a lobster that has only eaten lobster!
Good leaders run toward problems, bad leaders hide from them.
Quantity available is only one factor in price. Cost to acquire, transport, store, and market also add in. Live lobsters are expensive to transport and store, and lobster meet turns to mush if frozen.
There's an old anecdote that's appropriate here. If there were a huge pile of gold bars on the moon, it wouldn't be economical to go get them.
(seafood is typically cheap on the coasts, where beef is expensive. in the central and midwest, beef is cheap and seafood is expensive)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Because they're actually still kind of hard to catch? It's either baited cages or scuba divers with a bag. Either one is much more time intensive than dropping a huge net behind a ship then hauling it back in.
"No wonder those humans are always trying to eat us...we're delicious!"
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This is what the last "great" deed of humanity will be once we decimate the food chain and our food sources wither away... I, for one, give the lobster species a honorary status of Nostradamus with pincers.
Whoever first ate lobster.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
The article I read stated that conservation has a hand in it. Kind of like the wildfires getting worse because of burn laws reducing smaller fire occurrence. Honestly, I am waiting for Mayor Quimby to take over at this point.
Lobster stuff lobster.
Saying your "phone ran out of batteries" is like saying your "car ran out of gas tanks".
Maybe you're too young to remember, or you can't find it easily on the Internets, but back in the 60s when I was a kid, my family used to own French House Island off Jonesport in Maine, and we'd be up there every summer.
It had been observed then.
Now, that said, there's nothing better than Maine Lobster. We used to make blueberry pancakes from the blueberries on the island, and eat fresh lobster in butter, as well as clams we dug up and mussels.
But just because you can't find it observed this century doesn't mean it's "never been observed".
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
People incorrectly think that lobsters get caught in the traps, and never get out.
In actual fact, they tend to hang out in the traps, and then leave at some point.
The bait and the shelter from the traps makes them great places to visit.
(source: various scientific papers)
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Real foodies only eat wild raised lobsters fed on bison that eat nut grass.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Wouldn't you?
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Lobsters do this anyway.
Source: my degree in Marine Biology.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Who had the thought of going up to Maine and haggling for pounds and pounds of delicious lobster?
all the vegetarians out there... They should eat more meat.
Too late.........
http://www.hulu.com/watch/274815
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
No, just sea-cockroaches. ;)
Considering the primitive brain those bugs have, I fail to see why anyone would be surprised at their cannibalism, the rule of thumb in the ocean is anything you can eat, you do eat. 90% of my goldfish and koi fry are lost to cannibalism and predation.
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The main predators of lobsters are moray ells and the Wolffish, both of which are adapted to feed on crustaceans and have the jaws to crack lobster shells. The type of fish mentioned in the article couldn't eat a lobster to save their lives. The inference that greater lobster populations are the result of lower cod and halibut populations is as as silly as the inference that it is all because of global warming.
This is happening because the oceans are warming:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/science/121203/lobster-cannibals-caused-warm-seasons
"'We've got the lobsters feeding back on themselves just because they're so abundant,' said Richard Wahle, a marine sciences professor at the University of Maine, who is supervising the research. 'It's never been observed just out in the open like this,' he said." Abundance caused by populations of their predators collapsing.
owing to the increased temperature in the oceans... owing to global warming.
This is what happens when you inadvertently screw with the predator-prey relationships which have worked themselves out over millions of years.
Just wait 30 years and the FTFY will be :
"'We've got the people feeding back on themselves just because there's so little food' "It's never been observed just out in the open like this,' " We have overpopulation relative to collapsing food supply caused in turn by the collapse of the ecosystem, starting 30 years ago in the oceans..."
Everyone must be clamoring to sell Fish now. A smart investor buys low and sells high. A wise investor has a sandwich-heavy portfolio to protect against market crashes.