It is interesting to see that one of the highlights of the 2010 World Cup games is a British cephalopod mollusk, who has accurately predicted the outcome of the games. Animals as Oracles or means of divining the future were and I guess in certain parts of the world still being used. Before Battles or before an important decisions were made – animals were sacrificed their organs and entrails were examined to divine the future. Paul the Octopus is lucky and due to his Andy Warhol moment he will most likely live a long life for an marine invertebrate.
The Octopus once had a reputation for being one of the terrors of the Ocean. Like the Gorilla it was believed to be a monster to be feared. In a way there is an advantage to being feared. They do not hunt and kill you down. But if history of the Earth and its denizen you dont need to hunt and kill down a species to kill.
Abusing the web life that interconnects organism all over is enough to do it. The introduction of species to a new environment can and will have an inpact – look at what happened with the Starlings in Australia or the Janitor Fish (Plecostomus sp) in Laguna de Bay or the Tilapia (Tilapia and Oreochromis). The breaking up of the food chain (overfishing by man or man-caused disasters) disrupts the ecosystem – it is believed that such a disruption has caused the magnificent billfish t to leave their once domain.
Dr Seuss was right when he crafted the The Lorax.
This morning I received an email from Project Aware Foundation regarding the results of the 2010
Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), held in Qatar March 2010. Apparently the proposal to limit the trade in eight shark species – spiny dogfish, porbeagle, oceanic white tip, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, dusky and sandbar sharks – failed, it was not able to receive the required two-thirds vote majority. And now a petition campaign has been started if you would like to help and/or know more about it go here and at Project Aware Actions – their blog.
oh no
na fail? what do they need pa ba? a soothsaying shark?
@Photoblogger – a backbone . You can sign the petition and spread the word.