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Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

#41

Post by FriedrichN »

rbanffy wrote: post #40
FriedrichN wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a shock for me when I learned of this. It's a great way to show people who think humanity somehow doesn't have the capability to have an effect on greenhouse gas emissions for example. We have totally and completely reshaped the earth in a matter of centuries in what should normally take thousands or tens of thousands of years.

We are probably not the first species to do that. All invasive species reshape the ecosystems they enter. And just now we are gaining awareness of how we can change the environment in a deliberate way.

Not on Earth according to the data that we have. We seem to be quite unique when it comes to our ability to impact our surroundings.

Re: Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

#44

Post by a9h74j »

ars wrote: post #14
a9h74j wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen the argument (in Derrick Jensen) that whales migrate vertically, so the iron they distribute is somewhere else than originally, placing whales (if so) as a key factor in an iron circulation system.

But the iron is consumed on the surface, and the phytoplankton need it on the surface - if anything sending it to the depths of the sea seems counter productive.

IIRC he claimed they feed deep and poop shallow.

Re: Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

#45

Post by rbanffy »

0des wrote: post #6
ericjang wrote: post #3

I am not only awed by the size and bulk of whales, but also the sheer meatiness of shrimp. It seems like these organisms are > 90% meat. Why do they have so much meat? What do they need all that meat for?

I have a population of shrimp that have been breeding in my aquarium for quite some time now. They spend most of their time picking through detritus and otherwise managing the cleanliness of the rocks and sandbed. I'm curious if their 'meatiness' has something to do with how rapidly they grow and reproduce and the size of the clutches involved. A single female can have around 100 eggs or more attached to the undersid…

> unlike in humans where this is an autonomic process as far as I know.

It’s just that we don’t have conscious control of it. Our autonomic functions will adapt to the environment we perceive and act without explicit direction from our conscious selves.

Human is just the top layer of our brains. There are a ton of layered functions making it work.

Re: Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

#46

Post by rbanffy »

FriedrichN wrote: post #41
rbanffy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are probably not the first species to do that. All invasive species reshape the ecosystems they enter. And just now we are gaining awareness of how we can change the environment in a deliberate way.

Not on Earth according to the data that we have. We seem to be quite unique when it comes to our ability to impact our surroundings.

We are the certainly the most invasive species that has appeared in a very long time, but our uniqueness is only a matter of how fast we spread and how aggressively we reshape ecosystems.

Re: Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

#47

Post by taneq »

rbanffy wrote: post #40
FriedrichN wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a shock for me when I learned of this. It's a great way to show people who think humanity somehow doesn't have the capability to have an effect on greenhouse gas emissions for example. We have totally and completely reshaped the earth in a matter of centuries in what should normally take thousands or tens of thousands of years.

We are probably not the first species to do that. All invasive species reshape the ecosystems they enter. And just now we are gaining awareness of how we can change the environment in a deliberate way.

And all species are invasive, given half a chance.

Re: Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

#48

Post by taneq »

jacquesm wrote: post #36
voz_ wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your username and comment make me think GPT3 wrote this. What do you mean?

Can we cut the 'are you a robot, captain?' comments please? They are just a small step removed from 'are you a shill' (or worse: 'you are are a shill').

That’s just what a robot would say! /s

That said, if you really can’t tell, does it matter? Shouldn’t we be judging comments on their content, not on who (or what) we think wrote them?

Re: Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

#49

Post by rbanffy »

taneq wrote: post #47
rbanffy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are probably not the first species to do that. All invasive species reshape the ecosystems they enter. And just now we are gaining awareness of how we can change the environment in a deliberate way.

And all species are invasive, given half a chance.

True, but we are particularly nasty.

Re: Some Whales Can Eat Upwards of 16 Tons of Tiny Shrimp a Day

#50

Post by darksaints »

akudha wrote: post #42

Thats 32,000 pounds. In a single day. If I ate 5 pounds of food a day, it would take me nearly 18 years to eat that much! Any shithead who hunts these magnificent animals deserves to be locked up for life

On the other hand, these magnificent creatures are basically genocidal maniacs, killing hundreds of millions of other living creatures on a daily basis, just to feed their largesse.
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