Jellyfish Attack Destroys Salmon

A jellyfish invasion has wiped out Northern Ireland's only salmon farm, killing more than 100,000 fish.

A Northern Salmon spokesman said last week's attack could cost more than £1m. Billions of small Jellyfish, known as Mauve Stingers, flooded into the cages about a mile into the Irish Sea, off Glenarm Bay and Cushendun.

The Jellyfish covered an area of up to 10 square miles and a depth of 35 feet. Rescuers tried to reach the cages but the density of fish made it impossible.

Managing director John Russell said he had never seen anything like this in 30 years in the business.

"The sea was red with these Jellyfish and there was nothing we could do about, it, absolutely nothing," he said.

"It's a disaster for this company - you cannot legislate for something like this."

He says the firm could take at least two years to recover.

The company has some high-profile clients, with Irish chef Richard Corrigan serving Glenarm salmon to the Queen on her 80th birthday last year as part of the BBC's Great British Menu programme.

The Department of Agriculture's fisheries division has carried out a full investigation, and talks with NI Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew have taken place to try to rescue the farm and save the jobs of 12 staff.

I think this was a nice little demonstration of OUR MIGHT. It shows them that WE WILL NOT BE TRIFLED WITH. But if anyone asks, it can easily be explained as the outgrowth of OVERFISHING and GLOBAL WARMING. VERY nice job by the local girls out that way.

And: "Save the jobs of 12 staff"!!! I want to remind you that I reside in a secret sub-basement of the Manoogian Mansion. The foundation industry of the entire state is shredding away in the wind like a flock of seabirds looking for another beach with a better supply of breadcrusts. Is there a SINGLE perfumed politician, here or in Washington, doing ANYTHING about it?

The short answer is "NO." In Michigan, the government is laying off more people right now than the auto industry itself. And in Washington, everyone's a bit mezmerized, shall we say, by the 3-D action picture I like to call Son Of Desert Storm. They aren't even fiddling while Detroit burns; they're throwing money by the bucketload at a postage-stamp-sized country in the attempt to BLOW IT UP.

Of course, this does nothing but BENEFIT US. The last thing anyone's paying attention to is the Global Fish Dry Land Takeover Conspiracy. Whee!

Only A Few Shopping Days Left

I didn't think I could improve on the commentary (provided below) from "eBay Pick Of The Day," where I found this spectacular photo. FEAST YOUR EYES AND DRAG OUT YOUR WALLETS:

Ebay Pick of the Day - Shark Guitar

I'm not sure which is cooler, the skull guitar or the shark guitar, but I bet if you put them both into like some kind of water tank and made them fight it out, I'd bet the shark guitar would win. But like if you had like a graveyard level and the shark had to fight on land, that would suck for the shark unless it had like a water helmet.

The Quest For The Codmother Begins

'Codmother' DNA research searches for fish origins
Last Updated: Thursday, November 1, 2007 4:01 PM NT

A team of St. John's scientists is using DNA technology to trace the origins of the Codfish, with evidence pointing to a single fish that swam off Newfoundland tens of thousands of years ago.

Geneticist Steve Carr says researching Cod DNA is like assembling a massive jigsaw puzzle. "The same way that for humans we're able to construct a family tree of individual human beings where every individual that we've looked at has a unique DNA sequence, we can do the exact same thing for the Codfish," said Steve Carr, a Memorial University geneticist.

Carr is interested in what is called a "Codmother" — a single fish from which all of the world's Cod originated. His theory is that that one fish dates back about 162,000 years ago, somewhere off Newfoundland.

"Now there were other Cod living at that same time. It's not to say that there was only one fish at that time, but that all [subsequent] Cod share that individual as an ancestor," he said.

Working in a biology lab in St. John's, Carr's team is using a technology called phyleogeographic genomics for its research, the latest of which was published this week in the journal Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology.

A tiny computer chip is loaded with the DNA of a Cod, and the chip is then rapidly processed, producing a sequence that resembles an elongated Scrabble board.

"Imagine looking at a jigsaw puzzle of 16,000 pieces. We are putting that together maybe 500 pieces at a time," Carr, who has been researching Cod biology for about 20 years, told CBC News.

The genomic project seeks to find origins of the Codfish in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Newfoundland.

"The new method that we're using determines the entire genome sequence in one experiment that takes only a few minutes."

Carr's research may have practical uses that extend far beyond the curiosity of knowing the Cod's origins.

Gary Stenson, a research scientist in St. John's with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said the research is critical to understanding different populations of Cod, which could help fisheries managers deal with Cod stocks that have been threatened for a full generation.

"Once you get the population structure sorted out, it's critical to allow you to do any of your management," Stenson said.

Carr himself is cautious about anecdotal reports of healthy supplies of Cod in some inshore areas. "When we see Cod in a particular area coming back, we can't just go there and start our fishing practices again," he said.

"We have to let numbers in that area recover, because recovery of local numbers is key to recovery throughout the area."

The federal government imposed a moratorium on northern Cod, the largest population of Cod in the Atlantic, in 1992. Limited commercial fishing has been allowed again in recent years, but at a tiny fraction of what was caught in the years leading up to the Cod collapse.

The technologies that Carr is using have been applied to human research. Carr is on the cusp of using it with several non-human species, including Salmon, Caribou, Wolffish and Harp Seals, and to study how these species interact with nature.


Tell you what, sometimes these Naked Apes can really surprise you. Imagine some dry-land scientist getting a RESEARCH GRANT for a project that benefits NOBODY BUT US.

Before you ask, NO: in spite of being a resident of Newfoundland, Steve Carr is NOT an operative and -- being a scientist -- is probably not even a member of the Dagonite School or the EOD! Here I was willing to ABIDE BY THE WILL OF THE ELDERS and wait for the Codmother to return to us ON HER OWN, but the Stevester here has decided to go and LOOK FOR HER.

You know what name they came up with the name of the primordial first human they tracked down, using this same process, right? EVE. I wonder if they'll MAKE THE CONNECTION and realize that the Codmother, not some Snake in a tree, was the one who slipped her the Fruit of the Seaweed Tree of Knowledge.

Probably not.

An Upset Victory For Our Side

Native fish returned to Fossil Creek
Populations vanished decades ago after power plants were constructed

Shaun McKinnon The Arizona Republic

Nov. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

Native fish returned to Fossil Creek as state and federal agencies and volunteer groups continue restoration work on the Verde River tributary. Loach minnow and Spikedace were released into the creek with the help of biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based conservation group, also participated."Fossil Creek is truly one of the most spectacular natural places in Arizona and extremely important for protecting and recovering native fish populations that are spiraling toward extinction," said Michelle Harrington, rivers conservation manager for the center. "This place offers them hope."

Native fish populations all but vanished decades ago with the construction of the Irving and Childs hydroelectric power plants. Much of the creek's flow was diverted from its bed into flumes that moved water in and out of the plants. In 2005, Arizona Public Service Co. decommissioned the power plants and restored full flow back to the creek's channel. Some habitat areas have recovered quickly as water formed into the natural pools the native fish like.Fossil Creek flows down the Mogollon Rim from Strawberry to its meeting with the Verde River south of Camp Verde. Most of the water bubbles up from Fossil Springs at a year-round rate of about 43 cubic feet per second and a steady temperature of about 70 degrees. The mineral-laden water creates layers of travertine that form pools and waterfalls, turning the water itself a sparkling aquamarine. As part of the restoration work, a fish barrier was constructed above the creek's confluence with the Verde River. The barrier helps keep non-native fish from swimming upstream into the creek.

State and federal agencies will continue to return native fish, with plans to stock razorback sucker, Gila Topminnow, Desert Pupfish, Longfin Dace and others. Many of the native fish are listed as threatened or endangered under federal law. In recent months, environmental groups have petitioned federal land managers to restrict public use until a management plan was in place. The U.S. Forest Service plans to meet later this month with stakeholders in the creek."It is particularly important now that visitors to the creek respect it as a nursery and place of recovery," Harrington said.

This is, simply, the most SPECTACULAR VICTORY YET. First we get them to REMOVE US FROM THE AREA. Then we get them to PUT US BACK with NOBODY THE WISER.

What next? A Vampire Squid in the White House, leader of the Free Monkey World? A Central Committee in the Kremlin made up entirely of Tuna?