Study: Whales Are Ecosystem "Engineers" 64
An anonymous reader writes Researchers had previously thought that, being excessively uncommon and migrant, whales didn't have much of an effect on the more extensive marine environment. However, a new study distributed in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment gives whales a role as "engineers" of the oceans. In the study, scientists from the University of Vermont suggest that the 13 types of extraordinary whale have an essential and positive impact on the capacity of seas, on carbon storage, and on the state of fisheries around the globe. "The decline in great whale numbers, estimated to be at least 66% and perhaps as high as 90%, has likely altered the structure and function of the oceans, but recovery is possible and in many cases is already underway," researchers wrote in an article announcing their investigation.
Sooo.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If whales are engineers... (Score:5, Funny)
...what does that make beavers?
A dam nuisance.
Re:Yep. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, calling engineers "whales" makes them sensitive to their weight problems.
Re:If whales are engineers... (Score:5, Funny)
Beavers are the Koch Brothers. They directly cause global warming by cutting down trees that safely sequester greenhouse gases. When they eat and digest the trees, the greenhouse gases are released again as beaver flatulence.
Beavers build dams blocking our natural beautiful rivers, which make our own hydroelectric facilities less efficient. This makes us more dependent on Big Coal, and forces us to build a nuke In Your Backyard.
Beavers build low-cost sub prime mortgage McMansions, which will cause another Savings & Loan bailout crisis recession.
Beaver rhymes with Bieber, and The Bieber is ripped to his tits on cough sirup most of the time.
Save the whales, nuke The Bieber.
Re:As an Engineer,,, (Score:4, Funny)
Get back on your choo choo train and quit yer bitching.
As an Engineer,,, (Score:0, Funny)
"... feel that the title is being misused more and more."
I'd also ask not to be grouped with such lowly, ruthless animals.
Yours truly,
The whale.
Re:translation (Score:4, Funny)
With Science!