Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago • Hacker News Board

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#121

Post by spwa4 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:50 AM UTC

mothballed wrote: post #35

orsorna wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you bring a mission to a hostile island otherwise?

Because you think god is immoral, and you want them to meet his mercy?

How about, because civilization is in fact a better way to live? For example, misplacing a single step when you're 5 years old does NOT result in a slow agonizing death?

Because if you have civilization imperfect eyes are not a death sentence.

Because you can actually survive your 30s (odds > 1% or so) in civilization.

Because of music, movies, culture, science, ...

Oh and if you must have the more practical reason: because the priests come from the cities, usually a while after the city got brutally attacked with every man (and male child starting from ~puberty) from the village and even a few women trying to indiscriminately kill anyone they meet with spears and (before) poison and forcing everyone else to shoot at them, to devastating effect on both sides? Because such a priest sees the bodies, hears the stories of everyone "they'll try it again in 10 years", of mostly villagers but also a number of people that just happened to be in their way, and wonders if there's another way? Oh and, by the way, for this particular purpose, "our savior Jesus Christ" IS in fact another way and a solution, and that, of course, is how religions work.

Because "right of the strongest", brutally imposed through massacres and rape, is not in fact moral, I don't care what ideology or religion you subscribe to? Subsistence farming is a short, brutal way to live and this way of life dials that up to 11, or to 500, really.

I'm not sure why anyone would either not know this, or even insult it, as if the success of your ideology, of "natural purity" is somehow more important than kids surviving, and all the other reasons mentioned above, and I'm sure you can come up with 500 more.

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#122

Post by ofalkaed » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 7:55 AM UTC

jimnotgym wrote: post #117

ofalkaed wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, it is not always the case that birds can drop what they catch. I never knew this until I watched an eagle struggle to shore after it caught a fish that turned out to be too large for it to fly off with or do what it needed to do to be able to release the fish until it got to land. I have no idea about the swimming ability of an eagle but they certainly can't swim when they have a large fish in their cl…

Oh yeah, they have a kind of ratchet on the tendons. It needs the load to be on terra firma for it to let go

They don't need to be on the ground to release as a rule, there are just situations which make it very difficult or impossible for them to release without being on the ground. The bald eagle courtship would be suicide if they could not release while in the air. For light loads they are quite good at releasing stuff in the air and will pass nesting materials and food to each other while in flight.

https://youtu.be/gGjPrX84SMU

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#123

Post by nephihaha » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 11:40 AM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #93

austin-cheney wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely is that birds move fish between bodies of water because of fish eggs they carry on their bodies. This is how most bodies of water become supremely populated in Texas. In Texas all ground water sources, other than 1 lake on the far east side, are created by people in recent decades and almost all of these bodies are full of fish that did not get there on their own.

You're discounting the effort of Fish & Wildlife Services: https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/management/stocking/

In Norway?

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#124

Post by nephihaha » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 11:45 AM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #113

graemep wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how other Andaman islanders have been treated by outsiders hostility towards people who come there uninvited is understandable. People going to their island are not "immigrants" - no intention of remaining.

I really doubt they try to determine the immigration intentions of strangers they encounter. From what I hear, they kill any outsider within spear range.

That isn't entirely true. There were contacts between them and Indians from the government on more than one occasion. These were cautious but peaceful. There are photographs of these online.

So they are not, strictly speaking, "uncontacted" in the sense that they haven't had non-violent interactions with outsiders.

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#125

Post by dylan604 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:36 PM UTC

nephihaha wrote: post #123

dylan604 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're discounting the effort of Fish & Wildlife Services: https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/management/stocking/

In Norway?

" This is how most bodies of water become supremely populated in Texas. In Texas all ground water sources, other than 1 lake on the far east side, are created by people in recent decades and almost all of these bodies are full of fish that did not get there on their own."

I see Texas multiple times and Norway zero times. What is the confusion causing your question?

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#126

Post by BurningFrog » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

nephihaha wrote: post #124

BurningFrog wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really doubt they try to determine the immigration intentions of strangers they encounter. From what I hear, they kill any outsider within spear range.

That isn't entirely true. There were contacts between them and Indians from the government on more than one occasion. These were cautious but peaceful. There are photographs of these online. So they are not, strictly speaking, "uncontacted" in the sense that they haven't had non-violent interactions with outsiders.

I looked this up, and you're right!

Thanks for teaching me something new. That doesn't happen every day!

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#127

Post by pvaldes » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 4:29 PM UTC

m463 wrote: post #2

> That is the only possible explanation for how fish could have populated isolated mountain lakes isn't that a common question? "How do fish appear in landlocked lakes/ponds/etc"? After digging a pond and letting it fill with rainwater/groundwater, fish appear. I don't think its because people carried them there. (don't really know the common answer though)

> That is the only possible explanation for how fish could have populated isolated mountain lakes

Maybe an explanation, even a decent one, but not the only possible, not by a mile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_of_animals

This is one of the biggest problems with science. Lack of imagination an partially cooked theories written as gods speak and engraved in marble forever. Is true than being selectively blind may be a requisite in the stupid publish or perish race rat.

Trouts are stubborn fishes, able to jump. If the idea is that lakes created thousand years ago, never had a hidden sink connecting karst systems, a temporary river or a specially big detaw flood that trouts could use... okay, prove it.

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#128

Post by pvaldes » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 5:08 PM UTC

williamdclt wrote: post #20

wil421 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mountain lakes are completely different. There’s fish eggs being washed everywhere during rain storms. The eggs come from upstream and wash into random places.

How did they appear upstream?

Swimming upstream is what brown trouts do all the time.

If hunter gatherers did it 7000 years ago, should be possible to suspect it, but modern people do this things all the time. It should be easier to prove at least that they not were released in, lets say, 1780.

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#129

Post by nephihaha » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 8:33 PM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #126

nephihaha wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn't entirely true. There were contacts between them and Indians from the government on more than one occasion. These were cautious but peaceful. There are photographs of these online. So they are not, strictly speaking, "uncontacted" in the sense that they haven't had non-violent interactions with outsiders.

I looked this up, and you're right! Thanks for teaching me something new. That doesn't happen every day!

It is the way it is reported. There are very few truly uncontacted tribes. I'm not referring to aircraft and distant sightings. Some have had negative interactions with loggers, miners and fishermen etc, but the North Sentinelese have had some positive interactions with the outside world.

Maybe we all are the North Sentinel Island of the Milky Way. Now there's a thought.

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#130

Post by Suppafly » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 5:26 AM UTC

m463 wrote: post #2

> That is the only possible explanation for how fish could have populated isolated mountain lakes isn't that a common question? "How do fish appear in landlocked lakes/ponds/etc"? After digging a pond and letting it fill with rainwater/groundwater, fish appear. I don't think its because people carried them there. (don't really know the common answer though)

>isn't that a common question?

Only among people who've never looked into it. Generally it happens because birds drop them and also birds occasionally get fish eggs stuck to them and move them around.