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The following is something often repeated that doesn't make sense to me: >Of course we'll find them among us: they have nowhere else to go. The ocean makes up
by hueving 11y ago
The following is something often repeated that doesn't make sense to me:
>Of course we'll find them among us: they have nowhere else to go.
The ocean makes up a majority of this planet and a tiny fraction of it is within 20 miles of any land where most of the human activity is. Other than major shipping routes, they have the rest to go without encountering people. I don't know where the impression comes from that we are crowding them out.
- InclinedPlane 11y agoHumans have been hunting in the ocean for centuries, today we dominate it to a degree that we're affecting world fisheries to an enormous extent. Dolphins are going to be where the fish are, they have to be in order to live, humans are going to be there too.
- themartorana 11y agoI imagine some of it has to do with availability of adequate food, ocean temperatures (and how that affects both of the other points), mating "grounds", and so on?
- dangrossman 11y agoCoastal dolphins, which are genetically distinct from offshore dolphins, have evolved to live in coastal waters. Their bodies are not adapted to cold waters or deep diving. They really don't have "the rest" of the ocean to live in.
- jussij 11y agoJust like on land, not all parts of the ocean are equal. There are regions teaming with life, but there are also regions that are barren and life less, just like the deserts found on land. It all comes down to winds and currents as to which is which. Now the problem is, humans, like the dolphins don't want those desert parts of the ocean.
- codezero 11y agofor context, look at the range of one of their food sources, the sardine: http://www.chefs-resources.com/files/Sardines-Sprat-Pilchards-Brisling/Sardine-range.jpg http://www.chefs-resources.com/files/Sardines-Sprat-Pilchard... This greatly restricts their over-all range. To contrast dolphins, there are huge swaths of the land mass of the world with almost no human population, and we seem to gather in certain spots for certain reasons, most life does this, so it's not just a matter of the total volume of the ocean vs the entire population of dolphins.
- riffraff 11y agoI am confused by this image: I am 100% sure there are sardines and dolphins in the mediterranean sea.
- codezero 11y agoyeah, not perfect, probably constrained to a specific species/subspecies, sorry about that, general point I was trying to make is that the range is not as vast as the ocean volume :)