MORETON BAY, AUSTRALIA -- The fireweed began each spring as tufts of hairy growth and spread across the seafloor fast enough to cover a football field in an hour.
When fishermen touched it, their skin broke out in searing welts. Their lips blistered and peeled. Their eyes burned and swelled shut. Water that splashed from their nets spread the inflammation to their legs and torsos.
"It comes up like little boils," said Randolph Van Dyk, a fisherman whose powerful legs are pocked with scars. "At nighttime, you can feel them burning. I tried everything to get rid of them. Nothing worked."
As the weed blanketed miles of the bay over the last decade, it stained fishing nets a dark purple and left them coated with a powdery residue. When fishermen tried to shake it off the webbing, their throats constricted and they gasped for air.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Oceans Of Loss
In honour of Darwin day, I suggest you read this chilling article from the LA Times. We are a reckless, short sighted and foolish species. We have far more than global warming to fear.
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6 comments:
And it just gets worse. No worries, though, since the Blogging Tories have a picture of a thermometer somewhere.
So we're good here, right? Right?
What nonsense. Why I was in Negril at an all-inclusive just last year, and the sea was delightful.
Ergo, no problem.
Hey, me too, ti-guy.
And until you've had the Moreton Bay Bugs lightly drizzled with garlic butter like little baby lobsters oh.. you really HAVEN'T lived...
Are they sweetish? I don't like sweetish shellfish...makes me nauseous, in fact. Don't eat crab or crayfish for that reason.
Sheena...are you a chef by any chance?
Nope. But I keep chefs gainfully employed.
Great article. And it comes at an interesting time. Scientists have been finding clues that seem to show that at least two of the great extinctions were not caused by something that hit us from outer space. But by something that came from the seas. When tiny bacteria that are normally kept down by oxygen levels in the sea came to the surface and smothered large parts of the planet with choking clouds of hydrogen sulphide gas. The trigger was a rise in global temperatures caused by massive volcanic eruptions.
The scary thing is that we know more about the surface of the moon than we know about what lies at the bottom of the sea.
I think we better do something about that in a hurry...
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