Otter friend or foe

[Anderoo]

It was more a sarky comment about John's 'They have no other purpose, they only exist for our pleasure.'

[Phone]

Gozzer,

 

When you decide to go fishing and want to practice C&R - - - - - what other purpose do they serve? I'm already at the top of the food chain.

 

I don't feel even a hint of guilt.

 

Phone

[gozzer]

Gozzer,

 

When you decide to go fishing and want to practice C&R - - - - - what other purpose do they serve? I'm already at the top of the food chain.

 

I don't feel even a hint of guilt.

 

Phone

 

Location dictates where you are in the food chain phone. Try swimming in a river full of hungry crocs, and see if you're the top predator.

 

I don't feel guilty about fishing, but I recognise that fish have a niche in nature that transcends the needs of anglers.

Angling exists because of the fish, not the other way round.

 

John.

[Vagabond]

Try swimming in a river full of hungry crocs, and see if you're the top predator.

Norma and I have been forced to do that John, It's amazing how quickly you can swim and climb into the nearest boat when you realise you are a prey species.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Vagabond

[Phone]

teme,

 

Do you belong to PETA or just support them?

 

Gozzer,

 

Your answer makes no sense? Given the assumption that one judges position by distinction of predator and prey, humans would be at the top of the food chain, as we have no direct competition from any predators. However, if we look at it from the point of whether we are "immune" from being fed upon, the answer is no. Why would I take on alligators or jump into shark infested waters? At the top, I'm supposed to be smarter than that.

 

If I were to take an arrogant shot as something that is perhaps "higher" in the food chain I might have selected a virus of some sort.

 

Fish, for angling, is a renewable resource. Only through ignorance or starvation I guess would we eliminate any species. In there current state, fish in any venue are for my pleasure. I pay for restocking with the full knowledge some will die.

 

Phone

Edited November 21, 2011 by Phone

[Phone]

teme,

 

PETA is not so bad. I've worked with them on any number of occasions. Misguided perhaps, but not bad people.

 

Your comment is "boiler plate" PETA. I didn't mean to offend you. Fact is, if you seperate the wheat from the straw we, humans, are pretty nasty predators. None better IMO.

 

Has nothing to do with otters though.

 

Phone

[gozzer]

Gozzer,

 

Your answer makes no sense? Given the assumption that one judges position by distinction of predator and prey, humans would be at the top of the food chain, as we have no direct competition from any predators. However, if we look at it from the point of whether we are "immune" from being fed upon, the answer is no. Why would I take on alligators or jump into shark infested waters? At the top, I'm supposed to be smarter than that.

 

If I were to take an arrogant shot as something that is perhaps "higher" in the food chain I might have selected a virus of some sort.

 

Fish, for angling, is a renewable resource. Only through ignorance or starvation I guess would we eliminate any species. In there current state, fish in any venue are for my pleasure. I pay for restocking with the full knowledge some will die.

 

Phone

 

It makes perfect sense to me phone. Your position in the food chain is relative to where you are, and the species that live around you. You would obviously be 'safer' in an urban area void of large animals, but less so alone, in the middle of the jungle. Makes sense to me.

 

Why do you say, "fish for angling"? How do you distinguish those fish that are for angling, from those that are not?

You speak like you are in favour of artificially created fisheries, only there for the benefit of anglers. If that's so, then we have so little in common as to what constitutes angling, that we will struggle to find any common ground for debate.

 

John.

[corydoras]

Jesus love you

 

Oh! thanks for the very descriptive account, not, I cant look at the Attenborough's latest offerings without feeling moved by the sheer brutality of nature.

 

And we are Human Cory lest you forget, and I believe we are the only species that shows a big dollpop of compassion in such matters, so you should take that into account also, rather than having such a huge bias against mankind.

 

The OP was merely expressing a unique human stimulas...compassion

1) I don't believe in your Jesus.

2) Nature has no brutality.

3) Human's are just another species of ape to me. Sometimes we are compassionate, sometimes we are not. I have no bias against mankind, but I don't like the conceit that some members of the human race have for their own species.

4) Do you eat meat? Could you kill your own, or can you only face it if it comes in a little blue polystyrene tray from the supermarket?

[corydoras]

Of course Nature is brutal, it has to be, survival of the fittest, it may only be a play on words, but to me Brutal is about right.

 

Humans are just another species of Ape? Wow, that is a pretty big statement, but then again I think that some Humans so under utilise that wonderful gift between their ears that I would rather, much rather spend some time with Apes.

 

I eat meat, and I fully understand the origins of my meat on the plate, I used to witness the slaughtering of livestock as a Min of Ag 'Checkweighman' many years ago when we had a vibrant bacon Industry.

 

Could I kill my own? Yes if I had to.

 

You know what you can do with your polystyrene tray don't you?

 

 

You don't believe in Little baby Jesus? What on Earth are you going to do at Christmas?

Stonehenge perhaps

Was T. Rex brutal when it predated on herbivore dinosaurs 64,000,000 years before our species had evolved? Was that brutal with no humans to witness it? You are anthropomorphising, projecting human characteristics onto animals.

 

Homo sapiens is an primate, an ape that has a shared ancestor with the chimpanzee. That is a fact. I and I suspect one or two other posters can prove that beyond reasonable doubt. I repeat its a fact. It's as much a fact as is the fact that if you drop something it will fall to the ground or that the earth is an oblate spheroid planet orbiting around a rather ordinary main sequence star.

 

No I don't believe in baby Jesus, or adult Jesus or, dead Jesus or resurrected Jesus. I doubt he was even a historical figure.

 

At Christmas I will be doing what my ancestors have been doing for centuries before Jesus was supposed to have been born. I'll be celebrating do the Winter Solstice with my family in France. I'll enjoy a bit of feasting, exchanging gifts with and spending some time with ones loved ones and generally having a good time.

 

I've never been to Stonehenge. I don't believe in any gods or, faeries, or leprechauns, or ghosts, or any other supernatural beings.

 

Let me just finish by saying this. If you are an Christian, your almost as atheist as I am. If you are a Christian you dont beleiv in Zeus, Apollo, Neptune, Vishnu, Shiva, Amun, Ra and so forth. I just don't believe in one more god than you.

 

Why did you have to bring religion into a discussion about otters?

 

Human beings are the only animal capable of brutality.

[gozzer]

Norma and I have been forced to do that John, It's amazing how quickly you can swim and climb into the nearest boat when you realise you are a prey species.

 

I remember reading that Dave. Tell me, did you feel at the top of the food chain while you were in the water?

 

John.