Posted on 03/07/2010 9:24:28 PM PST by americanophile
In what could be the ultimate marine smack-down, great white sharks off the California coast may be migrating 1,600 miles west to do battle with creatures that rival their star power: giant squids.
A series of studies tracking this mysterious migration has scientists rethinking not just what the big shark does with its time but also what sort of creature it is.
Few sea denizens match great white sharks and giant squids in primitive mystique. Both are the subject of popular mania; both are inscrutable. That these two mythic sea monsters might convene for epic battles in the stark expanses of the Pacific is enough to make a documentarian salivate.
For more reserved scientists, the possible link between sharks and squid, suggested by marine ecologist Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Science Institute in Fallbrook, is just one part of emerging research that has altered their understanding of the great whites.
The shift began eight years ago with the surprising discovery that great white sharks migrate, somewhat as humpback whales do. That and subsequent studies have demolished the iconic image of great whites lurking in relative shallows, ready to snatch an errant swimmer, as popularized in the movie "Jaws."
Domeier said he believes the animals "are not a coastal shark that comes out to the middle of the ocean. They are an ocean shark that comes to the coast. It is a complete flip-flop."
Picture them not as a dorsal fin off the beach but rather as an unseen leviathan swimming through black depths where the oxygen thins and fish glow in the dark, and maybe pouncing on a 30-foot squid.
The squid part is controversial. But Domeier's work and that of other scientists increasingly suggests that great white sharks are not randomly roving eating machines.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"Though wary of pop biology, Domeier made the most of it. He used his time on camera to lobby against eating bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass...If mythic predator-mania gave him the chance, so be it, he said. "We are at a state of real disaster of our oceans," he said."
Not that scientists would make stuff up to push a green agenda < /sarc>
Yeah? Well I ate an entire dish of calamari last Thursday...and it was very good!
Yeah great flick.
That was a shot from the “Batman” feature film they did off the TV series back in the 60’s. Batman reaches into his Utility Belt and pulls out a can of “Bat-Shark Repellent” and sprays it on the shark.
In reality, octupi eat sharks. I saw a Nat Geo special on octupi once. An aquarium put small sharks in a tank with a octopus in it. After a day, they’d find a dead shark. They kept adding sharks, and they kept ending up dead...and they hadn’t a clue as to why. No other species was in the tank that would attack sharks...or so they thought. So, they rigged a video camera and added another shark. The next day, they found a dead shark, then reviewed the tape. Sure enough, they saw the octopus attack, kill, and partially eat the shark. They had no idea octopi were even capable of that behavior.
“Fish Tacos” in Baja California are really made from shark, and octopus is a regular food item here. As is smoked marlin.
Come on down, the beer is fine.
The calamari was OK, and the pulpa tasted OK, but was very rubbery, just as one might expect. It was in a seafood salad, IIRC the calamari was separate with some kind of sauce available. It's been a while.
As a young Marine, I was exposed to the cuisine of several Pacific countries; namel, fish heads and rice (Japan), Octopus soup (Hong Kong) and panser (Phillipines). Copious amounts of beer are highly recommended.
Damn,..what size is that....?
XXXXL
ROFL!
Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up Yumm!
Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up Yumm!
In the morning, laughing happy fish heads
In the evening, floating in the soup
Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up Yumm!
Ask a fish head anything you want to
They won’t answer, they cant talk
Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up Yumm!
I took a fish head out to see a movie,
Didn’t have to pay to get it in
Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up Yumm!
They can’t play baseball, they don’t wear sweaters
They’re not good dancers, they don’t play drums
Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up Yumm!
Rolly Polly fish heads are never seen drinking cappuccino in
Italian restaurants with Oriental women. Yeeaahh
Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up Yumm!
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