Creepy Invaders
This, to me, is either a creepy science fiction plot, or something worse. Riding the waves of the Japanese tsunami, strange new species are hitting our shores. From AP:
When a floating dock the size of a boxcar washed up on a sandy beach in Oregon, beachcombers got excited because it was the largest piece of debris from last year's tsunami in Japan to show up on the West Coast.
But scientists worried it represented a whole new way for invasive species of seaweed, crabs and other marine organisms to break the earth's natural barriers and further muck up the West Coast's marine environments. And more invasive species could be hitching rides on tsunami debris expected to arrive in the weeks and months to come.
"We know extinctions occur with invasions," said John Chapman, assistant professor of fisheries and invasive species specialist at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center. "This is like arrows shot into the dark. Some of them could hit a mark."
Okay, so how long before this hits our shores -- or our movie theaters?
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Aug '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
There's something wrong with scientists who worry.
Mar '11
Re: Creepy Invaders
The real arrows shot in the dark would be the unintended consequences resulting from spending hundreds of millions of dollars to mitigate the effect of a natural occurrence. Oh wait: Tsunamis aren't natural occurrences. They're the result of global warming. My bad.
Mar '11
Re: Creepy Invaders
Hoooboy. Now we're gonna catch it.
Oct '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
Feel the urge to revisit some B grade monster movies now. Giant radioactive crab monsters and all that.
Aug '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
By an amazing coincidence, I saw Prometheus last night.
Damned good flick.
May '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
Have you seen/read The Relic? Beware the leaves!
Houston's a port city with regular shipments of crops from Central and South America. I see new species of bugs every year.
Jul '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
Let's hope one mark is liberalism.
May '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
Why do they always presume that the current state of affairs is somehow "ideal" -- whether the climate, the present crab and seaweed species distribution of Oregon, whatever -- and that change = crisis.
Relax, scientists. Nature changes. It has ever been thus. No biggie. We'll pull through. (You're scientists. We shouldn't have to explain this to you.)
Jul '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
Exactly, Scott.
Ironically, these same "scientists" preach and teach evolution.
Apr '11
Re: Creepy Invaders
And let's not forget Chaga's disease.
Apr '12
Re: Creepy Invaders
If it was good enough for Darwin, it should be good enough for us.
Jul '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
Shoes and flip-flops. A lot of them.
Dec '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
The movie The Thaw skillfully combines global warming hysteria with invasive species hysteria by imagining that a thawed mammoth's carcass houses a species of parasitic bugs against which modern species have no defense. It's a really rotten movie.
Aug '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
A tsunami breaks "the earth's natural barriers"? Can't see it myself. Tsunamis are nature.
That said, you don't have to be a leftist worrywart to realize that some species are nuisances, and life's just better when there's a cost-effective way of controlling them. Like maybe having 'em for dinner?
Jan '11
Re: Creepy Invaders
Two votes for "Exactly, Scott".
Apr '11
Re: Creepy Invaders
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
That said, you don't have to be a leftist worrywart to realize that some species are nuisances, and life's just better when there's a cost-effective way of controlling them. Like maybe having 'em for dinner? · 26 minutes ago
So far no one is aqua-farming zebra mussels.
Jun '10
Re: Creepy Invaders
Can't be any weirder than what we got here in Oregon already...
Dec '11
Re: Creepy Invaders
I knew it. This tsunami was a bit too convenient. The planning that must have taken place. What Japanese won't do to get passed import restrictions. As an old television character used to say, "The old floating dock with crab and seaweed trick." We all know the future. Soon a "Japanese" seaweed and crab plant will open in Arkansas. This will destroy our domestic crab and seaweed industry. Others may think this a small thing but I want to be prepared so I have started mispronouncing my "r"s and "l"s. :-)
Jan '11
Re: Creepy Invaders
Man, my Spooneristic brain immediately went to "further muck up"
Apr '12
Re: Creepy Invaders
Could be an interesting movie. What about the 9 random severed feet showing up on Vancouver Island? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Sea_human_foot_discoveries