First Antarctic Marine Census Launched

Let's hope this is not the preamble to wholesale looting of Antarctican resources.

These "research" studies often end up with looting: As per the Japanese "research" on whales, resulting in thousands of them slaughtered so the meat may be sold in expensive Japanese restaurants.

Kind Regards....

"...those whaling men shown in the painting, were earlier compatriots of yours..."

Compatriots to be sure, but they're not sealers nor whalers, they're PIRATES! Oh, wait, faint distinction, isn't it? Never mind...

Even though we no longer have need of sealskin (PVC rain gear is highly superior these days, just got a Helly Hansen rain jacket last weekend from Norway that beats all!), or whale oil (CFLs give much more reliable lighting with, I expect, far less soot), and I can't imagine a diet of either creature's flesh (far too fatty, even for a bacon lover such as myself), we still 'hunt' them and kill them. Can't feature why, other than perhaps since we have removed most of nature's predators from our landscape we have to keep checks on the population lest the remainder starve.

But even the world's fisheries are being depleted at an alarming rate. The cause? Far too many human mouths to feed. Nature has a way (several, really) of dealing with overpopulation, you can see it in all sorts of species, from bacterial cultures to hares and foxes, to deer. The answers are effective, if not pretty - warfare (one of our human former primary methods), disease (which spreads further easier the more individuals there are in mutual contact), and starvation (which may yet be one of our species' major controls). We can implement, at least to an extent, peace treaties. We can cure and/or prevent plagues. We cannot live long on a diet of dirt, air, and sunshine, for we are not clover. Yet we arrogantly refer to ourselves as the planet's "superior beings"... Maybe we are, but we are still subject to natural controls on overpopulation, and we ignore this at our collective peril.