Oh man, it's Friday - how did that happen? Actually, I thought yesterday was Friday so that might account for the disorientation.
I thought, instead of starting the next phase of my project [deadline hurtling towards me at light speed] or doing my dishes [how do I use so many when I don't even remember eating a meal] I'd recap a couple of previously successful thoughts with a tiny bit more information.
Firstly, box jellyfish. As you know, by following thejamjar relentlessly for years: box jellyfish are a species of tiny poisonous sea creatures that can cause at best: pain and discomfort, and worst: death and damage Australian tourist economy [in the case of the irukandji flavour of box jellyfish]. But don't panic Mr Mannering, all is not lost. A team at Standford University School of Medicine have developed anti-jellyfish-sting cream. Of the 12 brave volunteers, only 3 were stung after the box jellyfish tentacles [from jellyfish found off the coast of the USA] were drapped over their cream-covered-arms compared to 10 stings on the uncream-covered-arms [ow]. Although Lisa-Ann Gershwin said she wouldn't be "wading nude into North Queensland sea wearing just the cream anytime soon" it's got to be a step in the right direction if our waters are becoming increasingly full of these pretty little stingers.
[I like square brackets]
Secondly - fish. I know you think about them as much as I do. All day, I think about fish and all night, I think about fish and.. okay that's not true but I've often compared myself to a goldfish - based on the story my sister told me about goldfish having a 6 second short-term memory - swimming around in their bowl happily rediscovering their little plastic castle every 7 seconds. Sometimes I feel like that - but that's MY problem and not my fish-genes as it turns out - fish are more intelligent, with congitive and memory powers that, according to Clever Fish: New Scientist 12 June 2004, "match or exceed those of "higher" vertebrates". [!!] Seems they "use tools, build houses and, above all, have an impressive ability for long term memory".
That means, officially, a fish is smarter'n me cos I can't use tools, build a house and my long-term memory is shocking.
Maybe it's not so much that we're overfishing, or the populations of whales and seals are over eating, but that fish are learning to avoid being caught? Nah, ignore that, it's that we're overfishing, you only have to see how those deep-sea-trawlers work to know how much damage they're doing to the sea and seabeds of this planet.