Monday, May 30, 2016

Daily Reminder - If You Don't Fight - Prepare to Die, Slowly

To imagine the ocean of the future: picture a writhing mass of unkillable tentacles, forever.

Pretty ominous isn't it? It seems their MASTER PLAN is well into progression. You have been warned. Conditions are changing in the oceans to make them perfect for the optimum growth and accelerated number of cephalopods in the water. They are also bottom feeders who can dine on a wide variety of seas life.

Elevated temperatures, for instance, are thought to accelerate the life cycles of cephalopods, provided the optimal thermal range of the species is not exceeded and food is not limited. Further, it has been hypothesised that the global depletion of fish stocks, together with the potential release of cephalopods from predation and competition pressure, could be driving the growth in cephalopod populations [5]. It is relatively well documented that many fish species have declined in abundance due to overfishing [8], and several regional studies have suggested that cephalopod populations have increased where local fish populations have declined (albeit casual mechanisms have not been identified; Supplemental Information) [5, 9]. However, a range of other environmental factors, such as changing current systems and climatic cycles, increases in extreme weather events, eutrophication and habitat modification [1], could also potentially confer a competitive advantage to cephalopods over longer-lived, slower growing marine taxa.