Gray Whale, Southern-Hemisphere Algae Seen In N. Atlantic

oxide7 writes "The gray whale hasn't strayed to the Northern Atlantic since the 18th century. The Neodenticula seminae, a species of algae, hasn't been there in 800,000 years. Now, members of both species have been spotted in the Northern Atlantic."

Nice try, but the two are unrelated

[Anonymous Coward]

Gray Whales are returning to the North Atlantic since they're no longer being hunted en masse and now their numbers are rebounding. Southern-Hemisphere algae appears in the North due to ships dumping their ballast water - the same way the zebra mussel has spread EVERYWHERE despite being native to the Black and Caspian Seas.

Re:This is bad because?

[hawkinspeter]

This fallacy was explored by a recent BBC documentary (All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace). Ecosystems aren't balanced equilibriums at all - they are constantly changing and have always been changing (i.e. before humans were around).

However, this doesn't mean that a particular change is going to be good for us humans.

Ecosystems don't go through gradual change

[Colin Smith]

Ecosystems are driven by exponential processes, change is always "catastrophic".

Re:This is bad because?

[Arlet]

And once upon a time there was no debate about the fact that it was possible to turn lead into gold

Do you have anything more recent ? Science and science publishing has improved a bit since the 17th century. Besides, it's not even true.

Also, periodicals would love to publish counter arguments, as long as they are scientifically sound. Such publications are good for publicity. The only problem is that this combination doesn't happen very often.