So long...we hardly knew ye

[SoCalDem]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/14/gulf.oil.threatened.species/?hpt=C2
Little-known pancake batfish could be one of oil spill's early victims

The Louisiana pancake batfish lives 1,500 feet below the surface and plays an important role in the food chain.


By Kelly Lynch, CNN
June 16, 2010 8:58 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has already claimed many victims -- from pelicans to oyster beds and precious marshland. But there may be one more: a species only just recently discovered.

Scientifically known as halieutichthys aculeatus, it is not a thing of beauty. But it lives an anonymous sort of existence on the seabed of the Gulf, some 1,500 feet below the waves and -- like all marine life in the gulf -- plays its role in the food chain. Its more digestible name is the Louisiana pancake batfish. And if oil stays deep under water, the gulf could lose it before it's even officially recognized as a species.

While scientists are uncertain what the long-range effects of the massive spill will be on the gulf's delicate balance of life and death and its complex food chain, the little-known Louisiana pancake batfish is a case in point of one species whose very existence is in that balance. Dr. Prosanta Chakrabarty, an ichthyologist -- otherwise known as a fish biologist -- and assistant professor at Louisiana State University, found himself face-to-face with the little fish during a deep-sea trawl in the gulf with the university last fall.

"We were lucky to get four or five specimen," Chakrabarty said. "The variation we found was enough for me to be convinced that there was something new." With a flat, round body resembling a pancake, as its name suggests, this species of batfish doesn't really look like a fish.

snip

[Yuugal]

1. K&R

[liberal N proud]

2. How many species will we lose with this catastrophe?

[loudsue]

6. Whatever it may be in the short run, looks like homo sapiens in the longer run.

We have to turn the tide on this kind of thinking, that counts profits over the world itself.

[kgnu_fan]

3. all the God's creation, we destroy

[xchrom]

4. we are all going to reel from the extent of destruction.

people aren't going to believe how bad it's going to be.

[kgnu_fan]

5. I think he is cute ... strange...and I am so sad to lose him

The earth is a strange place... producing such evil species like human