Friday, January 26, 2007

Science vs. Nature

You may have heard about the prehistoric shark spotted off the coast of Japan earlier this week. I hadn't, until a friend brought it to my attention yesterday. Well, not only was it spotted, but it was also captured... and later died in captivity. Lovely. So now we will have an even smaller chance of spotting one of its kind again.

Sometimes, I am amazed at how little thought is given to the consequences of certain actions. One might say, scientists needed to examine it in order to further our understanding of such species. Well, capturing it definitely didn't help that cause, and even diminished our chances of learning anything more about its kind. How much intelligence is needed to realize that a species that lives in very deep water might be endangered by being placed in tank is beyond me... and I totally second this Greenpeace blogger's sentiments.

Why can't we let nature just be sometimes?

story and initial feelings of discontent via ahsan.m

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

there is the video with some explanation...apparently she was sick?

http://www.marinepark.jp/shark.html

Reuters has a longer footage with more details (video under "related video"):

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?
type=scienceNews&storyID=
2007-01-24T131434Z_01_T98107_RTRUKOC_0_US-SHARK-JAPAN.xml

DJ said...

Possible, but I guess we will never know for sure. It is also possible that park staff came up with this version to excuse/justify their actions.

DJ said...

To FB:
What a totally unexpected comment! A lovely surprise. Yes, I definitely want to catch up. I don't even know where you are (or anyone else from Highlands is) these days.

Send me your e-mail; will e-mail right back. You are right about the comment moderation, so fire away.

Btw, do you mind if I publish that first comment?

Say hi to Julie too!