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Posted (edited)
  On 10/14/2022 at 7:56 PM, Bevo said:

I also see more whitewing dove in Austin than there used to be. When I went to school here, I don't remember seeing any. I just chalked it up to immigration.

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Whitewing dove are just hardworking birds eating the sunflower seeds that lazy mourning dove aren't willing to eat!

Pisses me off that they mostly stay in the city, though.  At my house?  95% whitewing.  At my hunting lease, 20 miles from my house?  99% mourning dove.  

Back to the crabs.....the blue crab situation in Texas is interesting (and discouraging as well).  My now-adult son still loves to crab when we're down at the coast, but the past couple of years, catching enough keeper-sized to make it worthwhile has been difficult.  We can catch crabs, but not as many, and they're mostly undersized.

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Texas blue crab populations have declined significantly in the last few years. In fact, last year's harvests were the lowest ever recorded. Only 3.1 million pounds were landed, an amount well below the historic average of 6.3 million and nowhere near the 11.9 million pounds landed in 1987. 

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I'm having a hard time finding numbers that show long-term population trends, but declining population seems to be a thing.

Edited by Brisketexan
Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 7:56 PM, Bevo said:

I also see more whitewing dove in Austin than there used to be. When I went to school here, I don't remember seeing any. I just chalked it up to immigration.

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I blame Stevie Nicks. 

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Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 8:08 PM, YGIFS said:

No, I am not related to Tom Perrotta.  I don't think he's a cannibal either, but who knows where these artsy types get their inspiration? 

Never a fan of crab legs, but won't turn 'em down if I see 'em at a party.  But I always think of Jim Gaffigan's bit when he orders it at a seafood restaurant, "Oh you'd like the snow crab, sir?  Let me get you some tools." 

Bottom line, no climate change angle here...this is just fucked up all the way around.  I think a lot of this may have to do with all the plastics in the ocean.  Even the most ardent deniers I know, who are fishermen like me, take a look at those photographs and satellite images of those flotillas of shit out in the ocean and think, "Yeah, that's the size of Texas...I bet the marine life don't like that too well." Once you start swimming under it and attempt to surface...you can't...for 500 miles.  That can't be good for morale down there.  

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Who is denying that there is a bunch of trash in the ocean?

Posted

When I was a kid in the 70s and I rode with my parents between Houston and Austin, the windshield and front of the car would be encrusted with dead bugs.  Now I have a decent chance of having a spotless car on that same trip. Maybe 1-3 bugs on it.

I'm not necessarily a fan of those bugs but I presume they were an important part of the ecosystem.

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Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 9:15 PM, Cornpop said:

Who is denying that there is a bunch of trash in the ocean?

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When I said "deniers", I was referring to folks who were denying changes werre happening to the ocean in terms of temp, levels, etc.  Not the shit  we dump in it, my bad.  Should have clarified.  

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Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 5:20 PM, crash_davis said:

The kids know we are fucking up the planet. Sad thing is our and the boomer generation don't give a fuck

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That’s why they’re all going to be voting lib.  But even the lib tards don’t really care.  Helping the environment costs too much.  Our money should go to illegal aliens and homeless people.

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Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 10:00 PM, PRONG HORN said:


 

That’s why they’re all going to be voting lib.  But even the lib tards don’t really care.  Helping the environment costs too much.  Our money should go to illegal aliens and homeless people.

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All of that is straight politics, period

Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 5:09 PM, crash_davis said:

I told my wife this years ago. Fishing the flats, especially mid-coast water clarify, you can see crabs. There were a ton more when I started kayak flats fishing in 2006. Now, they are few and far between and small as shit. Drought, water salinity, over harvesting, pollution, probably all of it.

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Ocean acidity is another culprit. CO2 is absorbed (dissolved?) into the ocean until there is equilibrium with CO2 in the atmosphere. The ocean was/is basic with a Ph > 7.9, but as more CO2 enters the water, the Ph has dropped and affected plant and animal life in shallow waters. Change in the ecosystem can be far reaching and very likely affecting species that depend on life in shallow waters.

I’s listening an audiobook called the Sixth Extinction. It’s pretty depressing how humans are causing plants and animals to die at a rate of tens of thousands above the background extinction rate.

Since the industrial revolution, mankind has released significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere in the form of CO2. That carbon has taken millions of years to form and we using it at a far faster rate than it can be replaced into the earth.

 Climate change is real.

 Consider listening to the audiobook. It’s already a beating listening to it. I’d probably put out form after 2 pages off I tried reading it. The book is really depressing song how humans are causing species to die off. Not at the rate of the last extinction (the K-T extinction being the last one), but fast nonetheless. 

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Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 7:12 PM, HiggyBaby said:
I blame Putin. Also, how do they know it’s a billion? Take role? image.gif.7cfc598868fe8d2070ff3f30489e8b1f.gif
Professional crowd estimator

The other night we went to one of those viet cajun seafood boil places, waitress told us market price for king crab was 79.99 a pound.
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Posted (edited)
  On 10/14/2022 at 6:52 PM, smuggs said:

I blame years of unchecked endless snow crab legs at Red Lobster.

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Lots of stories about this; they only ran the promotion 2 years because it nearly bankrupted the chain, and the President who dreamed this up was fired.  In summary; the president had came from a steakhouse background, so she thought unlimited crab = unlimited steak; they didn't bank on how much crab it would take to fill customers up and they were banking on customers only eating 2 plates of crab; anything over that was a loss.

I'll raise my hand; I did participate in this fiasco each of the two years it was offered.  One eventful trip involved my former boss and his two grandsons (who both played D1 football as offensive linemen).  We sat there for over two hours; and God knows how many crablegs were served at our table.  It looked like a battlezone when we were finished.  I remember at one point they just brought out a tub of crablegs because it was easier than carrying multiple plates.

 

https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/red-lobsters-unlimited-crabs-disaster-83e4afeb07dc

 

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Edited by Francisco 2.0
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Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 9:21 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

When I was a kid in the 70s and I rode with my parents between Houston and Austin, the windshield and front of the car would be encrusted with dead bugs.  Now I have a decent chance of having a spotless car on that same trip. Maybe 1-3 bugs on it.

I'm not necessarily a fan of those bugs but I presume they were an important part of the ecosystem.

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That may just be improvements in aerodynamics.  I drove a Gladiator to Houston a couple of weeks ago (with it's near vertical windshield and no aerodynamics whatsoever) and the windshield was an inch thick in dead bugs from top to bottom.

Posted

According to this dude, they ate themselves to death. They ate so much of themselves that there are only 13% of their population remain? Are the 13% the size of VW beetles? 

https://time.com/6222956/alaska-snow-crab-disappearance/

"To understand what really happened in the icy depths of Alaska’s Bering Sea this year means going back to 2017, when fishermen started reporting an unprecedented population explosion of juvenile snow crabs—what is called, in crabber speak, a “recruit.” The population boom continued into 2018 and 2019, creating what Jones says was the largest recruitment event on record. Jones is something of a local piscine historian. He can quote fishery statistics going back 30 years in the same way a Red Sox fan might quote batting averages. At the time the young crabs were too small for a legal harvest—juvenile snow crabs take four to five years to mature—but there were enough of them for seasoned crabbers to start the count-down to huge hauls starting in 2022.

In the meantime, Bering Sea temperatures, which usually hover around freezing, were on the rise, spiking several degrees between 2017-2019. Unlike mammals, who use less energy when temperatures rise, cold-water fish and crustaceans speed up their metabolism. The faster the crabs grow and expend energy, the faster they have to replace it, says Jones. Some of the crabs may have headed north into cooler Russian waters, but most seem to have stayed put. “All of a sudden you had this huge number of little crabs coming up, eating themselves out of house and home,” says Jones. “Then the water warmed, which meant they had to eat more.” It was a double whammy, he says, and the results were inevitable for a hungry, omnivorous species that has run out of its usual food source: “They basically cannibalized each other.”"

Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 7:56 PM, Bevo said:

I also see more whitewing dove in Austin than there used to be. When I went to school here, I don't remember seeing any. I just chalked it up to immigration.

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In my area, the collared doves replaced the white wing doves which replaced the mourning doves. I haven't heard a mourning dove call in probably over ten years.

 

  On 10/15/2022 at 3:21 PM, Samson's Wig said:

That may just be improvements in aerodynamics.  I drove a Gladiator to Houston a couple of weeks ago (with it's near vertical windshield and no aerodynamics whatsoever) and the windshield was an inch thick in dead bugs from top to bottom.

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That maybe part of it, but it is not disputed that the biomass of insects and other invertebrates is in serious decline. Recent rains may have temporarily bumped up their populations.

 

 

  On 10/20/2022 at 3:43 PM, crash_davis said:

According to this dude, they ate themselves to death. They ate so much of themselves that there are only 13% of their population remain? Are the 13% the size of VW beetles? 

https://time.com/6222956/alaska-snow-crab-disappearance/

"To understand what really happened in the icy depths of Alaska’s Bering Sea this year means going back to 2017, when fishermen started reporting an unprecedented population explosion of juvenile snow crabs—what is called, in crabber speak, a “recruit.” The population boom continued into 2018 and 2019, creating what Jones says was the largest recruitment event on record. Jones is something of a local piscine historian. He can quote fishery statistics going back 30 years in the same way a Red Sox fan might quote batting averages. At the time the young crabs were too small for a legal harvest—juvenile snow crabs take four to five years to mature—but there were enough of them for seasoned crabbers to start the count-down to huge hauls starting in 2022.

In the meantime, Bering Sea temperatures, which usually hover around freezing, were on the rise, spiking several degrees between 2017-2019. Unlike mammals, who use less energy when temperatures rise, cold-water fish and crustaceans speed up their metabolism. The faster the crabs grow and expend energy, the faster they have to replace it, says Jones. Some of the crabs may have headed north into cooler Russian waters, but most seem to have stayed put. “All of a sudden you had this huge number of little crabs coming up, eating themselves out of house and home,” says Jones. “Then the water warmed, which meant they had to eat more.” It was a double whammy, he says, and the results were inevitable for a hungry, omnivorous species that has run out of its usual food source: “They basically cannibalized each other.”"

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So, in other words, ultimately, climate change is the culprit.

 

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Posted
  On 10/20/2022 at 5:54 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

So, in other words, ultimately, climate change is the culprit.

 

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Most likely. I don't buy that guy's excuse that they all ate each other to the tune of 87% reduction in their species. No species is ever that fucking stupid. Or at least no species which has somehow survived for 100 thousands/millions of years.

Posted (edited)
  On 10/14/2022 at 5:20 PM, crash_davis said:

I was in Milos, Greece this summer. There aren't many American's there. At one of the beaches/coves, we see a family. Wife and I think, they look like they are from California. Younger boy looks like he's spent a ton of time on top of a surf board. He gets in the water and yells to his parents, "Ewww, micro plastics everywhere." 

Up to then, that shit hadn't crossed my mind. Sure enough I look down in the water and shit was everywhere. That kid was more aware than I was.

The kids know we are fucking up the planet. Sad thing is our and the boomer generation don't give a fuck. As long as we can retire in peace and comfort, fuck the future generations. It's their problem.

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There's a cove on the north side of the island that is beautiful... when we went in 2019 I remember that being a problem on the shore... the current and wind on the northern side push all that crap there.  BTW, there used to be pretty much no Americans on Milos when we first went in 2008.  Its getting discovered :(.  That will trash the island further.  Sarakiniko was packed.

Cove in question... maybe where you were... near Papafragas.  And, yes, Boomer just do not care... Boomers and "the greatest generation"

image.thumb.png.4f9fa642f4987fc7d9a995e589c9fdb9.png 

Edited by texasdago
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Posted
  On 10/20/2022 at 7:34 PM, texasdago said:

There's a cove on the north side of the island that is beautiful and I remember that being a problem on the shore... the current and wind on the northern side push all that crap there.  BTW, there used to be pretty much no Americans on Milos when we first went in 2009.  Its getting discovered :(

Cove in question... maybe where you were... near Papafragas.  And, yes, Boomer just do not care... Boomers and "the greatest generation"

image.thumb.png.4f9fa642f4987fc7d9a995e589c9fdb9.png 

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Yep, it was in Papa, Papa, Papafragus (in Lady Gaga's singing voice). BTW we saw a cool octopus right outside the mouth of this cove just sitting on the sandy bottom camouflaged like a rock. 

Posted
  On 10/20/2022 at 7:41 PM, crash_davis said:

Yep, it was in Papa, Papa, Papafragus (in Lady Gaga's singing voice). BTW we saw a cool octopus right outside the mouth of this cove just sitting on the sandy bottom camouflaged like a rock. 

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It's a beautiful location - couldn't get my family to go swimming with me because the cove felt ominous to them. I wanted them to jump through the holes on the other caves.  Usually the wind is a beating there.

One thing I love about Milos is the vast variety of rocks, pebbles etc but you definitely see more trash on the north side.

Posted
  On 10/20/2022 at 6:03 PM, crash_davis said:

Most likely. I don't buy that guy's excuse that they all ate each other to the tune of 87% reduction in their species. No species is ever that fucking stupid. Or at least no species which has somehow survived for 100 thousands/millions of years.

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further counterpoint:  Humans are a species.  And we are certainly "ever that fucking stupid"  

100,000 years of questions, reason, logic, facts, education, knowledge, wisdom, and peer-reviewed building blocks of civilization and technology?  Nah, Imma go smear my own feces on that rock over there and do my own research 'cause I gotta good feeling about this other line of thinking, thankyouverymuch! 

Posted
  On 10/20/2022 at 10:58 PM, Grade of D as in David said:
Shitting off a kayak
Eyeing the shore with bad intent
Crap running down his leg
Greasy butt cheeks smearing shabby clothes 
Hey, aquadump
I launched a nice turd upon the tide whilst wading Pass Cavallo area last week. Caught a few nice trout while my Turds drifted out to sea.
Posted (edited)
  On 10/21/2022 at 2:10 AM, Born to Run said:
  On 10/20/2022 at 10:58 PM, Grade of D as in David said:
Shitting off a kayak
Eyeing the shore with bad intent
Crap running down his leg
Greasy butt cheeks smearing shabby clothes 
Hey, aquadump
Expand  

I launched a nice turd upon the tide whilst wading Pass Cavallo area last week. Caught a few nice trout while my Turds drifted out to sea.

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Can't tell if this is Thoreau or Hemingway.

Edited by Grade of D as in David
Definitely Hemingway
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Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 9:21 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

When I was a kid in the 70s and I rode with my parents between Houston and Austin, the windshield and front of the car would be encrusted with dead bugs.  Now I have a decent chance of having a spotless car on that same trip. Maybe 1-3 bugs on it.

I'm not necessarily a fan of those bugs but I presume they were an important part of the ecosystem.

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You may be on to something:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/21/dead-bugs-on-windshields/

  Quote

After a long drive, the only thing that makes our stomachs churn faster than a windshield smeared with bug guts is a windshield bearing no evidence of insect life whatsoever. It feels like a fundamental pillar of the planet’s ecology has snapped.

You’ve probably noticed it, too. On long summer road trips, tiny corpses once formed a crust so thick that the reduced visibility posed a legitimate safety risk. Now, many folks we spoke with can’t remember the last time they had to scour the bug gore from their RAV4.

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Before we address possible causes of the “windshield phenomenon,” such as more aerodynamic cars, we should make one thing clear: It’s not a mass delusion or faulty collective memory. Windshield splats are valid ecological data, and they don’t bear good news.

One of the first to realize their potential, in 1996, was Anders Pape Moller, a Danish biologist with (a) the iconoclastic streak necessary to even consider using windshields as a bug-measurement device and (b) the stubbornly ferocious work ethic needed to see the scheme through.

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Moller, who now works at high-ranked Paris-Saclay University, said he began studying birds — and the insects they eat — in the late 1960s. In the mid-1990s, he got it in his head that counting windshield splatters might help track difficult-to-measure insect populations. He couldn’t persuade a graduate student to take up the observations, so he hit the roads himself.

Every summer, despite serious health issues that have kept him in and out of hospitals for the past decade, he and his assistants return to Denmark to drive battered budget vehicles back and forth, hundreds of times, along the same rural routes studded with farms in the north of Denmark’s Jutland peninsula.

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Posted
  On 10/15/2022 at 12:55 PM, 52-80 said:

Snow crabs: taste like crab; talk like people

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You’re close, but not a single person has posited the most likely culprit. 

 

 

Crab People.

 

Go to Walmart late at night and tell me that some of those shellbacked monsters perusing the aisles aren’t actually overgrown crustaceans. 

Posted
  On 10/14/2022 at 3:54 PM, crash_davis said:

From my readings this morning, take your pick.

Warming oceans, microplastics, fucked up Ocean currents (due to global warming) which are pivotal to weather and marine life, who the fuck knows.

But we can all agree this is not a good thing. 

I always go back to "what kind of world are we leaving our grandkids?"  I think we all know this answer. Then the question is, what are we doing about it? Answer: not much.

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You have given your "alarmists" a bad name. Surely there is very real and very convincing data that the planet cannot survive the excesses of the human race: proliferation of atomic devices, uncontrolled breeding habits, the rape of the environment, the pollution of land, sea, and air. In this context, isn't it obvious that "Chicken Little" represents the sane vision and that Homo Sapiens' motto, "Let's go shopping!" is the cry of the true lunatic?

Posted
  On 10/25/2022 at 4:41 PM, Braff Zacklin said:

You have given your "alarmists" a bad name. Surely there is very real and very convincing data that the planet cannot survive the excesses of the human race: proliferation of atomic devices, uncontrolled breeding habits, the rape of the environment, the pollution of land, sea, and air. In this context, isn't it obvious that "Chicken Little" represents the sane vision and that Homo Sapiens' motto, "Let's go shopping!" is the cry of the true lunatic?

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I quibble with the phrase "the planet will not survive."  The planet is a big rock that has been through some pretty catastrophic shit, multiple extinction events, etc., and it's still spinning and orbiting the sun.

The planet will, in the long run, be fine.  We humans, and the current ecosystem that we depend on, may be turbofucked, though.  And as a human, that causes me significant concern.  Because I like our planet.  But I REALLY like that I can live on it.  If that changes, then I'm gonna be fucked, as are my descendants.

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