This is just….just…ah heck I can’t even begin to describe it. The stupid, it burns.
Here’s the odoriferous essence of this publicity stunt story:
“In addition to the anticipated warming of lakes and rivers, we may also see an increase in the occurrence of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves.
“All of these could have an impact on much of the native wildlife in England, especially aquatic species such as the rare and specialised vendace, so we are taking action now to conserve the existing populations.”
So let’s move the animals into the ClimateArk for the “anticipated warming of lakes and rivers”. Eeegads, let’s not wait for the actual data to see if there’s a real temperature problem or not, act now!
The commenters on her blog are having none of it, for example:
ravenscar
Today 09:17 AM
“The endangered vendace, that has been in Britain since the Ice Age, is in danger of dying out as lakes and rivers warm up because of man made global warming.”
Are we to infer man has been warming up the planet since the last ice age?
How powerful must they have been, our ancestors.
This plucky little fish survived the Roman Warming, the MWP, which were warmer – so now, when it is cooler but the fault lies with Mankind? Thus, Global warming is the culprit.
That’s pretty poor logic even from you Ms. Gray.
I think the solution if you’ll excuse the pun can be found in the [lack of] water quality.
And this one….
I’ve understood that the threat to the vendace and other white fish wasn’t so much that the lakes are getting warmer as from eutrophication caused by run-off from fields and the sewage output of towns like Keswick.
They were saying this in the 1980s. Obviously the fertilisation problem must have been solved just in time for global warming. (Or maybe not).
This was the story the Telegraph was running about its demise in 2008;
“No trace of the vendace, a small herring-like fish, has been found at Bassenthwaite in the Lake District despite an intensive search.
The disappearance leaves Derwent Water as the last surviving habitat of the vendace in the England.
Competition from invasive fish species and poor water quality are being blamed for the demise of the rare freshwater fish.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ear…
It’s notable that they were still in Derwentwater at the time (largely upstream of Keswick), but had gone extinct in Bassenthwaite Lake ( immediately downstream of Keswick).
Not a mention of any of this in Louise’s cut and paste.
Ms. Gray has been pwned by the purveyors of this story. Read it and weep here.
Here’s the “experts” documenting it all on video:
So here’s the question. After introducing these fish into a new lake, what if they don’t survive? Blame global warming?
h/t to WUWT reader Robert Doyle
These folks must get little tingles all over their bodies when they do “greenie” little things like this. Oooof-Ta!
As long as they’re hauling ffish on llamas, they might as well load the whole thing onto Noah’s Ark and ship it to Bolivia, which is now OFFICIALLY run by Gaia, thus the only clean and innocent and sinless place in the world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights
Unfortunately, I have to deal with these Environment Agency people – and the majority and automaton ‘rule’ checkers. Many don’t actually ‘know’ very much at all but the EA has been riding the crest of the green issue for a long time now and the empire is now very very large! Don’t get me wrong – they do some good work and various rivers and coasts have benefitted from EA controls – but the vast majority of stuff I get involved with is pernicious nitpicking just to demonstrate they have a ‘role’ in our britich tick box bureaucracy! Sad, but there it is.
The Lama doesn’t look impressed either.
Here’s what will happen. The fish will be taken to a spot they have not previously strived in. If they survive at all they will then of course be an invasive species in that micro-ecology. They will wreak havoc on some other species native to their new home that used to eat mosquito lava. The population of mosquito will go up exponentially; leading to a malaria epidemic. Global warming will get the blame.
It’s hard to find the right word for something like this. Astounding maybe? If only humanity would put their minds toward improving the world, and not just their cause (read grants – money).
By the way there are 10 times as many vendace per hectare in the Scottish Loch Skeen, near Moffat in south west Scotland compared to Derwent Water. The guy in the video is a little short on facts.
Hey, I have a great idea…..
…let’s introduce a new species to a lake
aren’t these the same people that freak out over invasive species
Environment correspondent … is that anything like a pretend journalist? Someone that sits at the desk, fleshing out press releases for consumption, passing them off as though they are original pieces of work, the supposed result of many hours (or days) of painstaking and tedious research.
A simple solution has been found for nitrate runoff pollution:
buffers areas around the perimeter. Farmers are catching on to this.
Too bad the greenies don’t have anything better to do than moving the problem.
“we are taking action now to conserve the existing populations.”
This is really BAD cut-and-paste. This pairing of paragraphs 1) “something might happen” and 2) “we’d better act now” is really beginning to wear thin, and also wear out the ctrl-C/ctrl-V of the computers in question. It really does appear that they proably don’t even type the main body of these paragraphs any more.
The constant din of maybe’s and could’s has become the standard of reality throughout this ongoing charade, nicely presented by MSM’s syrupy ‘human-interest story” device.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the little beggars turn out to be an aggresively invasive species in their new habitat.
Are those indigenous European llamas, or intrusive South American llamas.
Of course being a concerned citizen of the world I looked up the conservation status of our poor old fishy.
They can be found in large numbers in Estonia, Finland, Russia and Sweden, as well as in smaller numbers in the UK, Germany and Poland. They also live in the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia on the Baltic Sea. They are common in freshwater fisheries in parts of Scandinavia and Russia. “Kalix löjrom” (vendace roe) is produced in Sweden.
Their IUCN conservation status?
LC (IUCN 3.1).
LC means “Least Concern”.
The same category as the House Mouse and, oh yes, Humans.
“The journey was finished by fisheries officers on foot to ensure none of the smarts were spilt.”
Smarts? They were spilt a long time ago. I do believe that, as well as cut-and-paste, a spell check might have helped–or perhaps a thesaurus, to find the word “smolt” or “fry”. Fry? No! No! that’s why we moved them NOW!
Hmmm,
I see two species that are not native to the area, MAYBE they are the reason the little fish in in danger. The solution to this is for the invasive man and llama jump off the nearest cliff. (In an environmentally responsible fashion of course.) This will save the cute little fish. Problem solved.
You miss the point, the sewage output from Keswick is politically correct. It does not harm lakes or fish because PC wombats say it doesn’t. It is part of Perfesser Flannery’s gaian superorganism and as such it can distinguish when it is doing harm and therefore gives a cuddle instead of harm.
Better yet….What if they move the fish to a lake that isn’t really habitable, so they all end up dying, or almost as worser, they evolve into a species that isn’t at all compatible with the original environ they’re supposedly going to re-populate after the cap & trade cures the Gorebul Warming?
Then, an added benefit of unintended consequences, let’s just wonder what if the removal of those to be transported leave insufficient numbers in the original habitat to maintain a healthy population….so they end up going extinct….Which of course, will result with Gorebul warming being blamed on the extinction.
Ya just gotta wonder what these people are thinkin’.
Phil’s Dad says: “By the way there are 10 times as many vendace per hectare in the Scottish Loch Skeen, near Moffat in south west Scotland compared to Derwent Water. The guy in the video is a little short on facts.”
When did a lack of facts ever stop a Green from opening his mouth?
The New Age has really arrived (cartoon): http://oi56.tinypic.com/9tnwcn.jpg
I swear I should do a video story about taking a basket of “free range dollars” with an alpaca up the slopes of Mt. Shasta and “setting them free” in the head waters of a mountain stream.
I would record their entire journey to the sea and at the end would be sitting on the beach waiting their “return” to spawn.
The stupidity of these people knows absolutely no bounds.
And to think, the people who are trying to re-introduce a blight resistant American chestnut tree to its original habitat in Appalachia are getting a hard time from EPA because they are “introducing” a species. Nevermind that chestnuts still sprout from the roots of some of the trees killed by the blight at the turn of the century but are killed by blight spores before they can mature.
Imbeciles.
Wait… they have a Vendace hatchery too? If so, then what’s the problem?
And, isn’t this exacerbating the invasive species issue? Are they now making the Vendace the invasive species in these upper mountain lakes?
They did the same thing with Shad and other species of fish in the Sacramento river. Now they are wondering where all the salmon are.
Man just can’t leave well enough alone. At least take the blame when you screw something up instead of blaming someone else’s use of an SUV.
The present evidence tells us that there has been no increase in the occurrence of extreme weather events.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2011.01.021
More stupidity:
I think this plan was abandoned. I wonder why? [cool British winter – not]
You can’t even sarcasm this one. It is stupider than any sarcasm you dream up, unless the AGW is just the excuse and they move some fish into unpolluted lakes. Maybe.
By the way Louise Gray has gone mad.
I have it on high authority (Monty Python) that Llamas live in rivers and survive on a diet of fish. How ironic is that?
Bollocks! Testicles to you Americans.
These idiots get away with this insanity because the media and politicians have decided to remain silent. Leave the fish alone, they have managed to survive just as the polar bears have done in the last 11,000 years with no Arctic summer ice.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.08.016
Louise Gray has gone off the reservation.
Wot I want to know is “Why are the bloody llamas in Cumbria anyway? Wot are they doing there? Couldn’t they have used a water-tanker?” Is it because they had to move North to escape globalwarming?
Better get use to it folks……We live in the age of Stupid……And Stupid Greenies will continue to do all manner of Stupid things in the name of Pseudo Scientific Man Made Global Warming……Sorry Climate Change.
Stupid Greenies are the Sand in the Gears of Progress….And they Intend to be.
What about the rights of the lake to which the Vendace are being transported? What about the rights of all the flora and fauna associated with that lake? Did they get to vote or render an opinion on the move? Is this not blatant Vendacism? If a healthy lake is near a dying lake, does the healthy lake have a duty to take refugees from the dying lake? If so, then Greens are in the business of raiding dying lakes for the purpose of spoiling healthy lakes. Typical Leftism. Leftists are in a rush to so deplete the resources of the Haves for the sake of the Have-nots that shortly only Have-Nots will exist. Then what will Greens do?
Tom says:
April 12, 2011 at 5:45 pm
“Are those indigenous European llamas, or intrusive South American llamas.”
Man-oh-man! Just think of the carnage in the rose gardens if they ever go feral.
The whole idea of llamas being used to carry fish from one lake to another, in a country where there are no llamas, and to a lake where these fish do not exist, although other ones presumably do, is preposterous. It brings to my mind images of:
A Hieronymous Bosch painting
A Boccaccio story
A Rabilasian exaggeration
Futility, thy name is Man.
OK Maybe I am wrong. Clearly llamas have been slowly migrating Northward due to AGW. Back in the 1970s, they were in Golders Green, North London; now, apparently they are on the borderlands near Scotland.
The fish will probably die from the temperature being too cold.
Llamas are fish too.
“It’s hard to find the right word for something like this.”
“Stupid” works for me, Tucker.
It’s longer than a word, but “dumber than a box of rocks” also fits.
OK, it’s official: There is no intelligent life on Earth.
Maybe now the Federation of Planets will open this planet for colonization.
Jimbo says:
“Louise Gray has gone off the reservation.”
And our leader has gone off the wagon.
Futile venture, it will not work unless they chanted a prayer to Gaia while they were releasing the fish.
Follow the money, these EA guys are parasites who probably got a grant or overtime to move a few fish around in water bottles. Only a few more years of this foolishness before their pension kicks in.
And did anyone ask the llama about this incident of indentured servitude ?? Some one better see if this animal’s civil rights have been violated. I mean 500 meters,
that’s over 1500 feet !
let me see if I’ve got this right. the vendace is a fish which is being endangered by invasive species so thousands of them are being moved to a new habitat where they will displace and endanger the current native species in their new habitat (or die because they cannot compete with the already existing species) in order to save them from the possibility of danger from global warming. Hmm, makes perfect sense to me, anyone know if that Gray person might be interested in buying a bridge?
I thought this story was ridiculous, but
crosspatch says:
April 12, 2011 at 6:12 pm
is an order of magnitude more bizarre. Well, except for the llama transportation.
I spent a bit of time looking for references to this story. The closest I found may have referred to an American/Chinese Chestnut cross that is nowhere near as desirable at tree as is the American Chestnut.
Do you have any links to this story?
Last year in in Florida a lot of fish died because of the cold. Maybe we should buy them tickets to Mexico.
A while ago I read an article about salmon that could not find their way up the Connecticut river to their spawning ground in at the fish hatchery in Bethel Vt. This might be because the fish hatchery isn’t on the Connecticut river and they got to it by truck, but this llama idea might work here. There are a lot of llama llama a ding dongs in Vermont who would love this idea.
Vendace? Are they good with tartar sauce….. and chips???
Tom “Are those indigenous European llamas, or intrusive South American llamas.”
To keep with the Monty Python Theme What is the unburdened weight of an African swallow?
Max @ 7:32.
No, it’s she who is trying to sell you the bridge. And it’s a bridge too far. The comments at the Telegraph were heartwarming. Sooner or later those British politicians are going to start listening to constituents.
============
Will anyone count the dead fish at the end of this journey and calculate the total impact of this environmental disruption, and then alert PETA and any reasonable governmental organization that actually practices transparency?
Why?
Yet further evidence that AGW alarmism/activism is a socially accepted form of insanity.
This is a joke, right? I mean, it isn’t April 1 is it? Nope. But this is a joke… Please tell me this is not real…
Fish babies…being rescued by Llamas…from global warming…in the UK. No… My mind will not accept this input. Argh!
OK, I can’t help it – why are there llamas in the UK in the first place? Did they migrate there because Chile became too warm? Are these the Evil Llamas I have heard rumors of? Or are they good llamas sent here to help out mankind?
Oh the pain…where’s my drink? Oh gads, it’s empty (again).
That video ‘Llama help move endangered Vendace’ has all the ingredients of a spoof – the sort that used to be shown around April 1 on programmes like ‘Country Calendar’ of farmers doing daft things with tongues firmly planted in cheeks. I can’t believe anyone could take this seriously. – well with the exception of wet Louise Gray – who is as daft as a brush anyway.
Douglas
So if I read this right they are being moved because of the better water quality and as a slight bonus that being higher and so colder if there is some climate change, man made or not, it will not matter. Sounds sensible. But then the climate change part got blown out of proportion.
I hope those llamas don’t crap in the lake! Noooooo.
By the way, a lovely part of the world there. Lucky fish.
Andy
First, this:
oh no, not the clown fish…it’s the end
448 DAYS UNTIL LABOR’S CLOWN FISH NAVIGATION TAX – Tim Blair
blogs.news.com.au
Now the vendace fish whatever, then what’s next?…It’s worse than we thought…
Ok, just to be clear…these guys are NOT introducing these fish into a remote Andean lake? I’m still a bit confused by the Llama angle.
Why not get Professor Cory Bradshaw of the University of Adelaide to say it might not be worth saving the rare fish in England (or anywhere else), and just let them die.
Here in New Zealand we are very proud of the work that’s been done to save NZ’s endangered birds such as the Kakapo. Professor Bradshaw who knows nothing about NZ birds said “It might not be worth trying to save the kakapo”.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/4879292/Let-wonderfully-weird-kakapo-die-scientist
Using a mathematical formula, Professor Bradshaw and colleagues from Adelaide and James Cook University, in northern Queensland, created a new index called Safe (Species’ Ability to Forestall Extinction), which ranks the probability of animals becoming extinct based on population.
Sure!
Ok, the way it started was they take a cross of an American and a Chinese chestnut. They inoculate them with blight and select the blight resistant trees.
Next, they take these and back-cross them with an American chestnut, plant the nuts, inoculate the seedlings with blight, select the survivors, and back-cross again with American chestnut.
With each successive generation, it becomes more American chestnut and less Chinese chestnut. The only feature they are selecting is blight resistance.
They are now to the point where they have trees that are 100% indistinguishable from American chestnut trees but carry the blight resistance gene from the Chinese chestnut.
http://www.acf.org/
You REALLY need to dig around on that site. It is manned by volunteers who aren’t the most web-savvy folks in the world. But I 100% support their mission.
Many years ago we Brits mistakenly thought we could control the world, now our government [deliberate lower case] thinks it can control Mother Nature.
The sucking sound we rhetorically heard earlier was this woman’s brains leaving planet Gaia.
The excellent Autonomous Mind blog takes the Beeb & the Grauniad to task on their pot-stirring on the same story here:-
http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/another-fishy-climate-change-story-lovingly-told-by-bbcguardian/
But I think Kev-in-UK is being a little unfair.
@Kev-in-Uk says: April 12, 2011 at 5:13 pm
“Unfortunately, I have to deal with these Environment Agency people – and the majority and automaton ‘rule’ checkers.”
C’mon, Kev! They aren’t all “automaton ‘rule’ checkers”! Why, a lot of them that I have to deal with, are fully paid up amateur bunny-huggers as well!
Aren’t those people required to register with the authorities?
Look. the llamas are OK because, under UN Human Rights legislation and Green Manifestos, these llamas qualify as refugees. They already show themselves as valuable new citizens carrying poor little ffish to new water holes where all the critters will be expected to live in multicultural harmony.
I am no fan of Ms Gray and although she could have questioned the ridiculousness of this, the real culprit was the Environment Agency.
The Fisheries Officer when Interviewed on BBC, said they had considered using mountain ponies to carry the fish, but a local charity provided the Llamas. It was surreal as the interiewer accepted the move in all seriousness.
Shame they were’nt Flying Fish.
My flat might get too hot in the summers due to the anticipated global warming. The extra anticipated few tenths of a degree over the next hundred years are a big worry for us. We do not know how we will cope yet.
I know its not the main point, but I have never heard of Sprinkler Tarn. I do know of a Sprinkling Tarn (a favourite spot of mine on the way up Scafell Pike). I suspect a mistake in the EA release and like all good churnalists, it’s now reported by all who follow…
Since llamas and Pythons have been covered, here is fish and Pythons:
.. and we all know what happened when man introduced rabbits to Australia!
It’s not llama land, it’s la-la land.
Auntie Beeb has a slightly older report of vendace being moved to Sprinkling Tarn (they got the name right) from Derwentwater. A somewhat more conventional mode of transport was used.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4486024.stm
It is of interest to note the difference in the quoted number of vendace available in Derwentwater in the two reports.
These people are insane. Its obvious that reason has been long abandoned.
I’ve moved my goldfish upstairs.
more dead penguins
Another older report in the Daily Telegraph indicates that this llama assisted “rescue” was not at all necessary.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3346740/Ancient-vendace-fish-saved-from-edge-of-extinction.html
Jimbo says:
April 12, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Louise Gray has gone off the reservation.
I think you’re on to a new phrase here, Jimbo! They’ve all “left the reservation”! I like it.
AND at Theo Goodwin, you remind of a “Not the 9 O’Clock News” sketch years ago,(for you Virginian Colonials, it was a comedy sketch show on BBC 2 at the same time as the BBC 1 national news was broadcast, hence the title!) in which they spoofed Question Time (political talk show), & the Robin Day character announced a 4 min warning of a Soviet nuclear strike launch, the Lord Carrington character started thre debate painfully slowly to the tune of “Leaving the holocaust aside for one moment……..”, then the female socialist on the panel had to make the point that “what people don’t realise, right, is that 3 million people right, are going to die, right……………………….unemployed!” thus encapsulating the entire socialist ideal! They don’t really care that people will die, as long they die fairly, all have jobs, or are on the right benefits, that’s ok then!
Yes I saw this rubbish which had me screaming at the TV screen.
How on earth did these fish survive the Medieval Warm and Roman warm periods and the previous warm periods?
Complete madness of these people astounds.
Story by Louise
GreenGray, arch warmist advocate incapable of independent critical thought . So that’ll be more garbage in, garbage out then. Just like everything else she’s written.A commenter at the Telegraph points out:
And may I add the Roman Warm Period to the list.
My taxes at work. If I rules Britain, whoever participated in this mad scheme would be introduced to the market PDQ and never allowed back into any government department again.
I wonder who the bright sparks were who decided that these fish were exclusively at risk with any possible future miniscule rise in temperature. Is everything else living in the lake left to suffer it’s own fate or do the greeny dumbos in the local authority have a unique insight into how our micro life systems work?
Martin Brumby says:
April 12, 2011 at 11:26 pm
you’re right – but I was being restrained in my disdainfulness because, the EA has some merits – the River Tyne is much cleaner now for example. Mind you, it didn’t take a giant organisation to work out why it was so polluted in the first place, and the clean up has of course been paid for by the public (directly or indirectly) as water authorities have installed sewage treatment plants, farmers slurry tanks, etc, etc – the cost of which ALL falls on the public on top of the tax money running the EA in the first place.
My beef is with their lack of pragmatism – which is where the rule checking and tck boxing – comes into play. For example, imagine a small petrol station site, next to massive historical gasworks site and the owner of the petrol station has to jump through hoops to ensure no ‘sniff’ of pollution into the environment – but the historic gasworks site is causing all kinds of pollution and is essentially ignored despite the fact that it’s pollutants dwarf any that MAY be caused from the petrol station!
crosspatch says:
April 13, 2011 at 12:03 am
Aren’t those people required to register with the authorities?
Quite! Very funny! But as is often the case, n’er a truer statement is made than that made in jest – and in this case, these same people FORM the bloomin authorities in the first place! LOL
I noticed this idiocy in the paper edition yesterday. I thought April the 1st had already gone!
Tim Woodman says:
April 13, 2011 at 12:36 am
_____
Louise Gray isn’t noted for getting place names and areas correct.
Sure they weren’t hanging with the Bolivians?
http://cbullitt.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/save-the-cocaine-bolivia-enshrines-law-of-mother-earth/
Many of us Telegraph readers are convinced that Louise Gray doesn’t really exist; it’s just the hack-of-the-day regurgitating the latest daft environmental press-release. There is never any original comment in these pieces.
Louise Gray……Bless her! Over at the Telegraph comments she is know as “Little Miss Cut and Paste”.
Her stuff is so innocuous that she is ignored or ridiculed endlessly. Why an MSN newspaper employs such a lazy journalist is beyond me but I guess she needs the money! Hopefully the inaccuracy in her latest attempt will make her editor sit up and take notice!
Far better the greens keep themselves fully occupied conducting these little acts of insanity rather than finding time to engage in well meaning large acts of insanity that costs lives.
Wonder if they did a section 30 health check on these fish or is the EA exempt from its own rules?
As an angler i pay a yearly fee to fish for course fish to the EA, if this is where my money go’s i might think again about paying it in the future?
If they want to protect fish lets start by prosecuting Eastern Europeans who come to the UK to work and think its ok to take fish for the pot,without a license. try ringing the EA and reporting it and see what happens………. nothing. I do dispair at this country and its PC mentality….
seems ms grayis taking some flak over at her blog, maybe, just maybe people are starting to realise what a con all this really is.
just looked throughms greys other mutterings….its a lots worse than you think
see here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8445732/Record-breaking-April-will-be-a-warm-month-despite-showers.html#dsq-content
look on the bright side at least its consistant BS she spouts
and today another article on the same subject says:
Ancient vendace fish saved from edge of extinction.
Not a word about Climate change, refreshing.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3346740/Ancient-vendace-fish-saved-from-edge-of-extinction.html
I think there mothers had wished thay had used contraception
Its high time that we transported lesser spotted woodpeckers on the backs of pine martens to Scotland
Um . . . . I am sorry this story is a publicity stunt with a sad twist but . . . .
History of Aquaculture. “The cultivation of marine species is also an ancient practice. Ancient Chinese manuscripts from the 5th century B.C. indicate the …”
www7.taosnet.com/platinum/data/whatis/history.html – Cached – Similar
which in around about way tells me that . . . part of how “hue”mans have survived through the centuries, is through a variety of techniques . . . .
In reading history of all kinds . . . a pond was a fine place to keep your fish until you wanted to eat them . . . before freezers, and canning developed . . . . and it seems reasonable, they would stock anything just to see what grew . . . .
Kind of like Squirrels bury-ing nuts . . . .
Are we sure this wasn’t an April 1st video that has only just been spotted?
OK, the moving of a minor and endangered (in the UK, though not in mainland Europe) fish species is a bit idiotic, but would be mostly harmless assuming the place they are being moved to is appropriate. OK, so the fish got isolated in a few small pockets at the end of the last glacial, but they seem to have struggled through for the last 10k years, and our intervention is almost certainly unnecessary but is of little real significance.
The absurdity of the whole thing is that the well known Cumbrian native species the llama was used to transport them. Just makes it seem such a hippy story.
Good for a chuckle though.
There is more to this than meets the eye. It is all about spin. In cricket spin is put on the ball to deceive the batsman about its trajectory. In politics spin transforms policy failure into policy success. The environment agency wants everyone to feel warm and cosy about all it is doing to mitigate the effects of climate change and does not want you to notice that it is doing this because of its failure to protect the environment.
The Environment Agency commissioned a study into the vendace population.
http://www.freshwaterlife.org/servlet/BinaryDownloaderServlet?filename=1134731921235_Bassenthwaite_Vendace.pdf
The study hand-waves at global warming along the lines of, cold water fish probably like to live in cold water; therefore if the water gets warmer sometime in the future, they probably won’t like it.
The real reasons for the extinction of the vendace population in Bassenthwaite were documented as eutrophication from urbanisation and suspended particulates arising, it was thought, from land use changes in the lake’s catchment area. Two quotes sealed the fate of the vendace; “The presence of large amounts of fine sediments was observed on the late 1990’s by underwater video inspections of all known vendace spawning grounds in Bassenthwaite Lake…” and, “Whatever its origins, the presence of this material makes successful vendace egg incubation extremely unlikely.”
So the Environment Agency, having failed to prevent the environmental degradation of Bassenthwaite, dresses the story up as one in which they saved the fish from the effects of climate change.
Shame on the Environment Agency for not fulfilling its statutory functions and shame on Louise Gray for not being a “real” journalist.
Browsing through the comments I note that vendace are (allegedly) “endangered” here but not in mainland Europe.
Hmmmm.
And across Europe, the Great Crested Newt is designated as a European Protected Species and covered by LOADS of regulations and legislation. (Mainly enforced by another useless Quango, “Natural England” but also by the EA).
I believe they are quite rare in Europe. But here in central / northern England, they are about as rare as Blue Bottles. There are literally hundreds of recorded colonies and some have over 1,000 specimens in a colony. It is a criminal offence to touch or interfere with them without a special Natural England licence.
Every year, dozens of developments, big and small, are held up (for a minimum of two years after grant of Planning Consent) whilst specialist Contractors and licenced Ecologists encourage the little fellows to migrate to designated pastures new. (They have to walk. No Llama rides for them!)
Just mention Great Crested Newts to a bunch of Civil Engineers, Developers, or Quarry operators and hear the groans.
I keep asking the Regulators, and the Ecologists “If these little critters are so rare, how come they are so common?”.
If you press them they will say, “well they ARE rare in Europe.”
I point out that cod, mackerel & herring are pretty rare in Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic.
But they just laugh at me.
A tip for anyone interested, is that fish really like newts. I wonder if I can get hold of some of these vendace?
I watched this film clip on a BBC magazine-type show a couple of nights ago. My wife had to speak sternly to me to stop me shouting at the television.
If it wasn’t so ridiculously ignorant it would be funny in a sad kinda way.
It wouldn’t be a good week without some wonderful cut and paste from dear Louise.
These days people like her, all go to a lesser university and do a degree in Media Studies. Over a three year period, they learn how to receive a green press release by email (year 1), Block it with CTRL+A, then copy with CTRL+C, (year 2), and finally find a place in the paper on a dull news day when the sub is calling for FILLER, and CTRL+V to pop it in and fill the hole (year 3). For those who do a masters in a fourth year, they are allowed to add at the front “From our ……… Corespondent”. Fill in the gap as appropriate.
And don’t think I’m being sarcastic, welcome to the world of the dead tree press. Their declining circulation figures tell the real story.
And hot off the Ctrl/V key is the Carbon Neutral Bra.
http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG8445588/Worlds-first-carbon-neutral-bra.html
Mick.
This could end up being another example of “Environmentalists” cutting down a forest to save a tree.
I missed the story earlier that Stephen Brown pointed out at April 13, 2011 at 1:38 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4486024.stm
So the same move, to the same lake, was made some years back. What happened to them? Either they snuffed it, in which case doing it again seems a bit daft. Or they are still there in which case doing it again seems, well, a bit daft.
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Just as a backgrounder, for those who really bend over backwards to be fair to these nutters, the species overall is listed as no more endangered than humans. There is controversy among scientists as to whether or not the UK population is a different species based on morphology. (Proper scientific difference of opinion the way it should be – no name calling, no blacklists or calls for imprisonment etc.). If you accept that there are different species of Vendace then (exactly) the same species as found in the UK can be found as far away as the Baltic. However you cut it, it is not unique to the UK. And there are bucket loads of them just up the road in Scotland should you want to repopulate their old English haunts once you’ve cleaned them up.
Llamas on the other hand can no longer be found in the wild.
@ Mick J who says: “And hot off the Ctrl/V key . . ”
I like that . . . . very nice . . .
The EA has climate change at the very heart of its corporate strategy, see http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/aboutus/112587.aspx so everything they do is tainted with fake environmemtalism at the detriment of other important work they should be doing. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve ever had the misfortune to hear/read about any of the chairman’s speeches which invariably focus on climate porn.
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Latitude says:
April 12, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Hey, I have a great idea…..
…let’s introduce a new species to a lake
aren’t these the same people that freak out over invasive species
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Funny thing, most “invasive” species where introduced deliberately by socialists of one strip or another.
“Sorry poor African Farmer, but you can’t use that ‘EVIL’ DDT. It will kill the Bald Eagle, don’t ya know. But here, I have a natural way to cut down on mosquitoes. Its called a mosquito fish. Just put these little guys in all the streams.”
Gambusia afinis eats a lot of things but not as many mosquito larva as the native fishes they displaced!
Hmm, just as I suspected, this is not even a truly endangered species. The justification of listing it is just so much legalistic smoke and mirrors. It is an even more egregious example of what caused the listing of the Delta Smelt.
BTW, my first love is the study of Desert Fishes. I come from a part of the world that actually has some species that really are “threatened” by major changes to their habitat through dams and introduced game fishes. Yet they have managed to survive.
Moderator:
Sorry, screwed up my link: this should be corrrect. Please delete previous blunders…
There are other species of fish even more under threat from AGW, possibly already on the edge of extinction. These haven’t been caught in decades. Let’s get fundraising to save the FBT!
[snip – inappropriate humor regarding the Telegraph author – Anthony]
Gee, I thought Paul H might be talking about me . . . . but I like to cite my sites . . . .because it’s just right!
Credit where credit is due?
Aside from the best laugh I’ve had for ages, this quote from Miss Cut ‘N Paste will probably have pleased one UK vehicle manufacturer:
“It was impossible to use conventional transport like a 4×4 motorbike or landrover.”
Whether it really was impossible or not, the name Landrover is so well known that it’s mentioned separately from other 4×4’s. I bet the local owners club are preparing a trip up the mountain as we speak…
Cut ‘n’ Paste Grey alright. Looks like she just reworded this a bit and handed it in.
Finally, some good news from the British Health Service! Paranoid delusions no longer need any treatment!
…we have a special term for fish like these in Oklahoma….”live bait.”
Indeed, the use of llamas is some seriously stupid show-boating!!
Telegraph has been writing about these critters for some time, this dates back to 2008:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3346740/Ancient-vendace-fish-saved-from-edge-of-extinction.html
…not much of a mention of global warming in this article!! S-C-A-M….
I just tripped and fell on a baby frog. It was caused by global warming. Now the frogs are extinct.
Did Miss Grey pick up the llama poop being deposited near (the formerly pristine) lakes and walking path used to carry the soon-to-be-dead new fish to this pristine lake, or did she leave it to decompose “naturally” underfoot of future hikers?
See, if there WERE life in that lake, the new fish would bean invasive specie – like the Japanese Kudzu, now found from Canada through the US to Australia and Fiji – Obviously solely due to English-speaking capitalists:
Invasive species
“Kudzu was discovered July 2009 in a small patch, 110 metres wide and 30 metres deep, on a south-facing slope on the shore of Lake Erie near Leamington, Ontario, about 50 kilometres southeast of Windsor.
Ecologist Gerald Waldron made the Leamington find while walking along the beach. He spotted the kudzu instantly, having read about its destructive expansion in the southeastern United States.
Main article: Kudzu in the United States
Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States in 1876 and is now common along roadsides and other disturbed areas throughout most of the southeastern United States. Kudzu has been spreading at the rate of 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) annually.
During World War II, kudzu was introduced to Vanuatu and Fiji by United States Armed Forces to serve as camouflage for equipment.[citation needed] It is now a major weed.
Kudzu is also becoming a problem in northeastern Australia, and has been seen in isolated spots in Northern Italy (Lake Maggiore). (Above from Wikipedia, a good source of invasive specie (er, money.))
I do believe those are Drama llamas used for increased effect on the bait…. Err I mean poor little fishies.
And in a related story, 50,000 minnows were transported back downhill by vicuna to escape the predatory vendace, 100,000 frog larvae were transported back uphill by guanaco to escape the predatory minnows, and the vendace were then transported back downhill to escape the poisonous frog larvae. A spokesperson for the Camelid Eco-Rescue Transportation Workers Union reported that they had received a 2 million pound grant from the EU Department of Pointless Migrations. An Environment Agency spokesperson added that further 10 million pounds is needed for further research, which will be funded by a 25% increase on VAT.
They’ve done this before
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4486024.stm
“An RAF helicopter will be used to transport around 200 vendace from Derwentwater to nearby Sprinkling Tarn in the Borrowdale Valley, on Thursday”
No helicopter this time, cuts at the MOD.
Got as far as “By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent”
This woman is legendary for fleshing out NGO press releases and passing them of as “journalism”. Quite why the Telegraph let her get away with it I don’t know. Perhaps the many disparaging comments and the extra traffic from WUWT and elsewhere keeps the Telegraph in ad revenue. Not sure the longer term sacrifice of becoming a joke publication is worth it for them though.
Is it just me or has there been a glut of industry (Climate Change Industry that is) propaganda and nonsense in the last month or so? Is this the all new “communicating the science” of which they so often speak now? If it is then I have some bad news …
The Environment Agency are clearly taking their new role (as a ‘delivery body’!) seriously:
(from the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ website)
£2m/year will allow them to move quite a few fish. Wonder what else they are planning.
“It was impossible to use conventional transport like a 4×4 motorbike or landrover.”
She’s invented a new mode of transport too. A 4 x 4 motorbike?
“She’s invented a new mode of transport too. A 4 x 4 motorbike?” – No, she’s just too lazy to punctuate properly…
Angry Exile says:
April 13, 2011 at 10:03 am
ha ha
absolutely frigging excellent – well spotted dude!
Known in the trade, I understand, as ‘Loopy Lu’.
What I find is amusing is the llamas, in England. Is the climate in Chile getting too inhospitable for them now? Why not use some traditional shetland ponies to do the job? Ponies don’t vote Labour or Green?
That’s about as crazy as this idea:
Marijuana causes global warming, uses 1% of U.S. electricity
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2011/04/12/marijuana-causes-global-warming.html?ana=e_pft
The word you’re looking for is “odoriferous”…