Preventing evolution?

[AlecWest]

Recently in Australia, a number of false killer whales (look like killer whales but not as aggressive) beached themselves. Do-gooder humans "rescued" them by helping them back to the sea:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4602429.stm

Anyhoo, I've been rewatching my backup of the "Cosmos" series done by Carl Sagan. In episode 2, he spoke of how early fish attempted to leave the water to live on land ... and in one case (the lungfish) were able to succeed. This makes me wonder what would have happened eons ago if do-gooder humans had been around. "Oh, look Debbie," one would say, "those poor fishes beached themselves. Let's put them back into the water." No lungfish, maybe???

It makes great newspaper copy to see human beings "helping" these animals back to the sea. But, are they really helping ... or interfering in an evolutionary process that takes a long time to achieve success???

[pbhalerao]

You can't win! Can you?

[BJ_M]

well you could leave them there and let them die ... which most will do anyway ..

but the thing is these are mammals anyway and already crawled out of the ocean (when animals first came to land) and crawled back into it much later (all whales started out as land mammals) ..

so in fact it would be de-evolution and your theory is all washed up ..

[AlecWest]

so in fact it would be de-evolution and your theory is all washed up ..

...or "re-evolution" ... and the theory that evolution is only a one-way process is all washed up. Scientists don't know why they're beaching themselves and just assume they're confused. But, maybe they know exactly what they're doing and it's the human race that's confused.

Here's another thought. A few years ago, a whale swam into San Francisco Bay. Scientists conjectured that the whale might have been confused by the intense sonar activity in the area (Naval activity). Residents with boats banded together to "help" the whale back out to sea. They did ... and the whale promptly turned around and swam back into the bay ... requiring them to repeat the process not once but twice. On the third and final try, the whale just swam away. But a talk-show radio host came up with a more down-to-earth theory on why the whale swam into the bay.

"It was just a stupid whale!" he said, hehe. Really, you have stupid dogs, stupid cats, even stupid people. Why can't there be a stupid whale? And by saving stupid whales from certain death, are we truly helping the species ... or are we interfering with nature's law among the animal kingdom that dictates only the strong should survive? Whales (and other fish) have been beaching themselves for a very long time. The only new thing going on are the heroic efforts expended to return them to the water ... whether they like it or not.

[thecoalman]

They should have used the Oregon removal method: http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/seeit/020904exploding_whale.wvx

[AlecWest]

They should have used the Oregon removal method: http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/seeit/020904exploding_whale.wvx

I'm an Oregonian (grin) ... but I think that method was a bit much. And, I think the main reason why they did that is because it occurred in Lane County, mid-way down the state. If it had happened further North, they'd have probably just rigged up grappling hooks to a tugboat and towed the carcass out to sea. We do have a lot of sharks in our waters and they'd have taken care of the problem nicely.

[ZAPPER]

Just a thought, dead things don't evolve do they?

[AlecWest]

Just a thought, dead things don't evolve do they?

Themselves, no. But, I doubt if the first lungfish to survive on land eons ago was also the first lungfish to try. Evolution doesn't happen overnight.

[ZAPPER]

The ones that tried and failed are not the ones that passed on the genes, it was the ones with the genes that succeded

[BJ_M]

actually it was just dumb luck

[AlecWest]

The ones that tried and failed are not the ones that passed on the genes, it was the ones with the genes that succeded

... but if some of them tried and were "helped" back into the water, their genes wouldn't have been given the chance to succeed. That's the point. Even scientists don't know why they're beaching themselves. Yet, the general public "assumes" the animals don't know what they were doing and intervenes in what would otherwise be considered an act of nature.