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MH2
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 2, 2009 - 07:12pm PT
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Last Saturday January 31
the shining sea below
a separate reality above
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Whacking golf balls into the sea has small enough impacts in the greater scheme of things,
except for some hapless sea creatures who might try to eat them.
Somehow the sheer casualness of the action reminded me of Jeremy Jackson's provocative research
(with emphasis added, below).
The biology of the ocean is very rapidly changing state from complex to simple, from 3-dimemnsional
to 2-dimensional, from heterogeneous to homogeneous, from food chains capped by large vertebrates
to those capped by small invertebrates, and by explosive increases in microbial biomass. The
human drivers are overfishing, pollution, introduced species, aquaculture, and climate change --
probably in that order of importance historically if not actually. Rates of change are accelerating
and may be difficult to reverse. The rise of jellyfish and bacteria and demise of animals
effectively erase half a billion years of Phanerozoic evolution, taking us back to the
latest Precambrian before the explosion of metazoan life. What kinds of species will dominate
the ocean? What are the most likely future scenarios, and what are the implications for our use of
the oceans and our way of life? Fishers have found good markets for the jellyfish, but not yet for
the bacteria. Do we even want to try?
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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But on a cheerfuller note, and on topic:
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richross
Trad climber
gunks,ny
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A Dare by the Sea,Otter Cliff,Acadia National Park,Maine.1985 Photos by Geoff Ohland.
There is another photo upthread taken from above by our friend Karen.
I got these today after being contacted through Supertopo by my old friend Geoff.
Harry Ohland more recently.
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MH2
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 3, 2009 - 06:16pm PT
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Bacteria and jellyfish, he says? I guess there would still be a lot of these around, too.
I just heard on the radio about Google Oceans. "You can follow Great White sharks as they swim around Vancouver Island."
Yikes! I hope they keep their distance from my side of the strait.
A purely irrational fear, of course. Unlike fear of oceans in trouble.
This summer one of these
floated under me
and I worried what it might do to me if I fell on it.
Irrational fear.
Another time this summer I met Randy Atkinson, picture upthread, out on the traverse and he talked for a while about how much more sea life used to to be evident there not too many years ago.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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richross, I think A Dare has gone back on my do-list for summer. Been a long time since I climbed it.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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MH2, as for jellyfish, including giant poisonous ones so numerous they kill all the fish
and smother the beach ... I heard a lot about them last fall at a meeting of the North Pacific
Marine Science Organization. One phrase that stuck in my mind:
"The current era of jellyfish ascendancy"
No one mentioned Jackson's "Brave New Ocean" thesis, but in data-rich paper after paper,
there it was.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Here's my best jellyfish, but it's not having a good day.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there ... wow, lots of neat stuff going on over here.... will take me awhile to soak it all in...
great share, chiloe and guys thanks...
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MH2
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 3, 2009 - 11:35pm PT
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That is one evil-looking jellyfish.
Although shucking golf balls into the marine ecosystem may be disquieting,
let's not make the golfer our poster-girl enemy, lest we lose the fight.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Naw, nothing against her. Just reminded me that the oceans are where it all goes.
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MH2
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 4, 2009 - 04:29am PT
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Gulls are marvels of the seaside.
Anything that would eat a starfish raw would have to be.
Where seabirds like to park on the traverse. And egest bits of starfish. Don’t step on those.
My only sea otter picture. Taken with the more expendable camera, as in the birdlime example above.
I got into what, if it were in Britain and a whole lot bigger, would be a zawn.
There was something sinister-looking below the tide line but it wasn’t hostile.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Let's sea...
Norwegian Sea:
Labrador Sea:
Yellow Sea:
Anybody got some more?
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MH2
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 4, 2009 - 05:52pm PT
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Good stuff.
Today those pictures happen to recall what I felt like as an 8-year old heading out the door in the early morning.
To look beyond the houses.
To find ponds, turtles, snakes, or a new mystery like the clear-wing moth.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Distant mountains of North Africa, brooding on the horizon at sunset, across the Mediterranean Sea.
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perswig
climber
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Posted on another thread, but more appropo here, maybe...
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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^^^ The Gulf of Maine, I'll wager.
And the Chukchi Sea:
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Just down the coast from MH2's favorite traverse
And then this is quite a bit the other way, towards Squamish
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Seal Cove in that last shot, right? I think I've actuall seen seals there almost every visit. Beautiful spot at day's end.
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