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The Last Days of the Blue-Blood Harvest
- fallingfrog 8y agoWas expecting an article about the French Revolution. Disappoint.
- himom 8y agoNo crowdshare guillotine apps yet, but I hear Khosla Ventures and KPCB want to invest to materialize this category.
- aoki 8y agoit's not the point of the article, but i find it fascinating that this industry has managed to figure out how to capture >400k wild animals per year and return ~90% of them alive to the ocean after harvesting their blood with a giant needle. there must be an interesting story here about how they figured out that they needed to do this with a sustainable take rate (unlike most commercial fishing industries).
- stevenwoo 8y agoThere was an older article in the Atlantic that showed we aren't actually sure if the horseshoe crabs are unharmed by being taken out of the water and draining a lot of their blood. The declining numbers says we might be harming them or it might be some other factor. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-blood-harvest/284078/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-b...
- jessaustin 8y agoI'm similarly suspicious of "catch & release" fishing...
- reificator 8y agoI just literally don't understand catch and release. Your entertainment is to embed a hook in a fish so you can then remove it from the water, remove the hook, and throw it back in the water? Why?
- 9935c101ab17a66 8y agoI don't think you understand what literally means. Also, anything can seem absurd if you are extremely reductionist and present it in an uncharitable fashion. (I've never fished before, just some remarks)
- reificator 8y ago> I don't think you understand what literally means. > I just literally don't understand [how] catch and release [is entertaining] Is that better? I know the meaning and used the word appropriately. I just left out a few other words because I thought my intent would be clear. But you know, it's trendy to complain about "literally" now so have at it.
- PakG1 8y agoYou're literally that guy. :D https://xkcd.com/725/ https://xkcd.com/725/
- peteretep 8y agoI don't fish, but: Presumably it's enjoyable to sit in nature, far from distractions, with a variable reward that something happens every hour or so, and occasionally the thing that happens warrants a photo and something you can tell your friends about? A bit like watching cricket, actually.
- taneq 8y agoTorturing fish for fun seems distinctly suspect to me as well.
- 8y ago
- eksu 8y agocommercial fishing industries have a vested interest in achieving the maximum sustainable yield. furthermore, legislation like quota systems are generally supported because it gives companies a golden ticket to harvest while denying newcomers from entering the space.
- aoki 8y agoyet in practice overfishing occurs in species after species; individual interests do not always align with the macro interests. that's why i think there's an interesting story lurking here. there were probably a small number of technocratic players involved (maybe even one) who were able to specify how the chain should work.
- specialist 8y agoMonitoring and enforcement have been tough (infeasible). I’ve been away from conservation for a while now, but I’d hope it’s gotten better with satelites, drones.
- OrganicMSG 8y agoThe cod wars between the UK and Iceland would suggest that fisheries policy is often not exactly the most calmly rational of human endeavours.
- toomanybeersies 8y agoUnfortunately overfishing is super common. Tragedy of the commons and all that. Quota systems and overfishing aren't mutually exclusive either. There's plenty of fisheries quotas that are still higher than a sustainable quota should be.
- chrisweekly 8y agoThat sounds logical, but in my experience as a coastal New Englander, boat owner and former Seafood.com employee, (albeit 20 years ago), commercial fishing _communities_ (possibly critically distinct from the "industries" you noted) skew heavily towards anti-fisheries management. Think "NMFS destroys families" bumper stickers.
- jpatokal 8y agoHorseshoe crabs are rather extraordinary creatures. They're essentially unchanged for 450 million years, and look like it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab The roe is edible too, but has to be prepared very carefully as it can contain the same poison (tetratodoxin) as blowfish/fugu: https://praneesthaikitchen.com/2013/01/28/horseshoe-crab-egg-salad-recipe/ https://praneesthaikitchen.com/2013/01/28/horseshoe-crab-egg...
- throwaway010718 8y ago"Horseshoe-crab blood is exquisitely sensitive to toxins from bacteria. It is used to test for contamination during the manufacture of anything that might go inside the human body" This seems like an impossibly random discovery. Did scientists test the blood of various animals until they finally found an optimum with horseshoe crabs ?
- koolba 8y agoI’m no medical boffin but their blood being blue seems like it’s interesting enough to warrant investigation into things like this.
- kemiller 8y agoBlue blood is moderately common among large invertebrates. It’s due to copper being the oxygen binding element.
- GuiA 8y agoPlease read the article entirely before rushing to comment... ”Bang, a pathologist, was interested in the creature’s primitive immune system. He settled on a protocol of injecting bacteria from seawater directly into horseshoe crabs, which cause their blood to clump into “stringy masses.” Bang suspected this clotting had a purpose. It immobilized the bacteria, sealing off the rest of the horseshoe crab’s body from an invading pathogen. Intriguingly, their blood turned to gel even if he boiled the bacteria injection for five or 10 minutes first. This should have killed the bacteria and sterilized the injected solution. Bang realized the blood was sensitive not just to live bacteria but to bacterial toxins that persist even after sterilization.”
- ryanwaggoner 8y agoOr you can just post your comment without reading the long article and some gloomy scold will do the hard work for you :) This reminds me of how the best way to get the correct answer to a question on a technical forum isn't to ask, but to post the wrong answer. Someone will be along shortly to correct you. https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/