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FISHES THRIVING IN THE WORLD

Barbra Streisand once worried about “fishes dying in the world” due to global frying. This should calm her down:

Climate change is affecting the growth of fish, with those living in warmer, shallow waters growing faster and species in cooling deep ocean waters growing slower, according to an Australian study.

But things are looking up even for those sad, slow-growing fish in the cooler lower depths, according to the CSIRO’s Ron Thresher:

“With increasing global warming, temperatures at intermediate depths are likely to rise near-globally.

“This could mean that over the course of time, the decrease in growth rates for the deep-water species could slow or even be reversed,” Thresher explained.

Which is great news for fat ‘n’ lazy polar bears.

Posted by Tim B. on 04/29/2007 at 11:39 AM
  1. That is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long, long while.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 04 29 at 12:17 PM • permalink

  2. Climate change is affecting the growth of fish, with those living in warmer, shallow waters growing faster and species in cooling deep ocean waters growing slower, according to an Australian study.

    Does this mean we can expect a reduction in the legal catch length of coastal fishies like salmon and tailor?

    Or for that matter Crayfish?

    Posted by The_Wizard_of_WOZ on 2007 04 29 at 12:31 PM • permalink

  3. Wizard, no there will be no change in catch limits because THAT is a DIFFERENT eco-nazi nitch.  I’m waiting for one of them to claim that rising sea levels will adversly impact the FISH population - flooding or some such thing.

    Posted by rabidfox on 2007 04 29 at 12:40 PM • permalink

  4. By extrapolating we know that at current rates of increase, by April 12, 2053 the entire Earth will be covered in a layer of fish 100 meters deep.
    Or so says the Lancet.

    Posted by Merlin on 2007 04 29 at 03:46 PM • permalink

  5. SBS had an endeless, typically gloomy Gulf Stream ‘docco’ last night. These are really Goebbels-like propaganda, complete with heavy mood music background all through and a God-like, Whispering Voice repeating all the gloom three times simplistically.
    It seems the Gulf Stream stopped due to a Greenland water melt many times in the past. 
    This stopped the cycle of warm water to northern latitudes and ice formed solid down to France in the Atlantic in a little as 70 years.
    Woe! Woe!!  - The basis of The hysterical movie The Day After Tomorrow.
    So an Ice Age threat looms for Europe the US and Canada because of Global Warming

    The doco was completely Euro-centric.  It didn’t ask
    1. what GOOD effects this process had elewhere in the world.

    2. What caused the melt 100,000 years ago, and what reversed the trend naturally.

    3. It also included contradictory predictions of ‘terrible’ heat waves in Europe [Aussies have them every year]

    These are the most irritating, dishonest, childish ‘doccos’ ever made - the Gore School of Docco as Horror Movie. 
    Yet they are now very common on SBS, the Goebbells Channel.

    Posted by Barrie on 2007 04 29 at 07:14 PM • permalink

  6. Europeans think it’s a terrible heat wave when they can’t wear wool underwear.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 04 29 at 07:15 PM • permalink

  7. Where do Europeans wear wool underwear? 

    ;-P

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 04 29 at 09:43 PM • permalink

  8. When I did high school chemistry we learnt that oxygen, like most gases,is more soluble in cold water than it hot water, and this is why the North Sea was teeming with fish. So why should warmer waters make for bigger fish, since the fish will have less oxygen…

    Posted by Secret Squirrel on 2007 04 29 at 10:47 PM • permalink

  9. I think these bozos throught in a global warming angle to a) get media attention; and b) secure future funding.

    I would respectfully suggest these pbservations are the result of ocean currents rather than any shorter term effects. CSIRO iteslf says that the lower ocean levels have been getting colder the last 400 years.  That seems potentially bad to me.  That water will rise eventually. 
    After all, changes in the amount of cold water rising up in the eastern pacific is what is what drives the el nino/la nina cycle works.

    Posted by entropy on 2007 04 29 at 11:21 PM • permalink

  10. I have to sexually assault Gaiea by heating my aquarium to near 30 degrees celcius, otherwise my finny freeloaders would be deader than Labors reform agenda.

    what’s more, if you keep it warm all year ‘round the redclaw crayfish grow while you’re looking at ‘em, and achieve pot size in about six months; my wife thinks I’m a Visigoth, but who the fuck gets attached to a goddam crustacean? (except of course for Mr Pinchy). If the dogs looked a bit tastier than they do they’d have to be quick movers.

    Posted by Habib on 2007 04 30 at 02:09 AM • permalink

  11. #8 Secret Squirrel:

    The oxygenation of sea-water question is all because of Henry’s Law, which when applied to the oxygen content of the atmosphere would show a decrease in atmpospheric oxygenation of sea-water from approximately 9 milligrams/litre at 18 degrees Celsius, to 8.5 mg/l at 23 degrees Celsius.

    Of course, as you would know from High School, oxygenation decreases from 15 mg/l at 0 degrees Celsius (freezing point) to zero mg/l at 100 degrees Celsius (boiling point) in a graphically linear fashion.

    As maximum solubility approaches 15 mg/l at freezing point (Zero degrees Celsius), you can no doubt see that a five degree Celsius change in water temperature from 18 to 23 degrees reduces oxygenation from 9mg/l @ 18 degrees (60% of maximum), to 8.5 mg/l @ 23 degrees (56.67% of maximum). Maximum, of course, is 15 mg/l at freezing point, with 0 mg/l at boiling point.

    However, when you look at the concomitant temperature change of normal sea-water between 18 degrees and 23 degrees Celsius, this is a pretty significant underlying change from “normal”, which would have the Greenies reaching for their chunder buckets.

    However, the change in oxygenation is a tiny difference between 60% and 56.67%, and statistically insignificant against a massive change in water temperature.

    In other words, Secret Squirrel, I think you are full of shit.  Prove me wrong, by all means.

    Posted by Kaboom on 2007 04 30 at 04:22 AM • permalink

  12. 8&11;
    Erm, it does not matter a damn what the O2 content is, what matters is the nutrient level. If the waters are full of nice nutrients and they come to the surface somewhere (like the Grand Banks or Chilean coast) you get shedloads of phytoplankton munching merrily on the nutrient/sunlight combo. The water is basically turned into thin green soup. Then you get loads of little critters merrily munching on the phytoplankton. Then you get bigger critters.. well everything up to whales, basically.

    Got bugger-all to do with the O2 absorption level of the water. For any city in this country, the best fishing is where the sewage system empties its nutrient load into the open sea.

    Yeah, I know, fishing can be a crappy hobby.

    MarkL
    canberra

    Posted by MarkL on 2007 04 30 at 06:40 AM • permalink

  13. Okay, let’s cut right to the chase.  Does this mean more salmon?

    Posted by Achillea on 2007 04 30 at 03:02 PM • permalink

  14. Isn’t it a bit off for a specialist in deep sea fishes to have the name of Thresher?

    Posted by SezaGeoff on 2007 04 30 at 08:03 PM • permalink

  15. They had to hire thresher.  Flounder never got out of college…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 04 30 at 08:24 PM • permalink

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