Pentagon using brain implants on sharks

[finstotheleft]

Howdy guys...haven't been on here or seen some of you in a while...hope life it treating you all well! Drop me an e-mail and lets go dive.

Pentagon using brain implants on sharks

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This is very scary, folks. The Pentagon (DARPA - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is funding research at Boston University to use neural implants to control the movement of sharks. They say that the study will add to our knowledge of sharks, along with advancing medical knowledge (the want to make reactive prosthetic limbs from this). But the other purpose would be to use sharks as military spies, following vessels around.

This is a link to an article in the Bostonia, containing an interview with Prof. of Biology at Boston University, Jelle Atema. You can also find related artilces on CDNN and Discovery.com.

http://www.bu.edu/alumni/bostonia/20...ons/submarine/

I urge everyone to write to DARPA and to Dr. Atema, expressing your sentiments against this project. Here is the letter that I am sending (please feel free to comment on anything that is not right, typos, etc. You won't hurt my feelings, and I'd rather it make sense before I send it!) I'm sending a copy to DARPA...their address is included below as well:

Dr. Anthony J. “Tony” Tether
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
3701 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1714



Dr. Jelle Atema
BU Marine Program
7 MBL Street
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, MA 02543

Dear Dr. Atema:

I am writing in response to an article which states that DARPA, along with researchers at Boston University, are planning to use neural implants in sharks to control their movements. I ask that you please reconsider this project.

It was just recently discovered that Great Whites travel for hundreds of miles all across our oceans, yet no one knows exactly why. With so little known about sharks and their migratory routes, how can we possibly expect to control their movements for our own will and not disturb their normal behaviors? At the very least, we should understand where the sharks go and why; we could be disrupting whole ecological systems by steering them in the wrong directions at the wrong times.

In a February 4, 2005 interview in the Bostonia, you state “It’s surprising how little we know about sharks”. I would ask that you heed your own words of wisdom. Please consider learning more about shark behavior from a strictly observational standpoint, before progressing to a participant-observer position.

You know of the perfectly adapted evolutionary features of sharks. They are an extremely amazing, untamed creature, evolved over millions of years. They pre-date dinosaurs. It saddens me to think that we would enslave such a majestic creature for our own means, no matter how good our intentions may be. Surely with all our modern technology, there must be other methods of studying sharks, expanding our medicinal knowledge, and defending our country.

My fear is that the public perception of sharks may prevent any reconsideration of their exploitation. It is not possible to ensure the survival of a hated species. I certainly hope that this will change; as an ardent scuba diver, I hope to reach as many people as possible to garner more support for these wonderful animals and their importance to us and the environment. My wish is that projects such as this will be abandoned.

Sincerely,


Beth Clemons

cc: Dr. Anthony J. Tether, Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

THANKS FOR HEARING ME OUT!

 

[cummings66]

Your letter while interesting will do no good. The arguments are not convincing enough. Here's a couple errors in perception.

First, to control a shark is to bend them to our will which is not within their normal behavior. So that argument is flawed because they INTEND to MODIFY their normal behavior with only a few sharks which will not affect the species as a whole, you're merely restating what they are going to do and not why it should not be done. Not to mention similar things have been done in the past with dolphins with no effect upon the species as a whole.

The second major issue is that this is most likely already well along because the article was dated nearly a year ago, way too late to stop it now.

I obviously do not care to fight this battle when I feel that finning is a much larger problem and more likely to lead to the extinction of the species, that's a battle worth joining if you ask me. However if you want to fight it, then rewrite your letter removing the feel good stuff and back up your request with scientific data showing why it's a bad idea.

I'm not against you, I just believe that to fight a scientist you need convincing scientific data and leave the emotions at home, they have none and will not respond to it. That doesn't even guarantee it will work if it's being backed by the govt. The Govt. does what it perceives to be in it's best interests and even an act of Congress can't stop them. In fact, I'd suggest a CC to your locally elected rats as well. Lots of them are looking for a cause and may just sign on.

 

[drbill]

Too bad they can't attempt a few neural implants in the brass and Defense Dept to control their movements!

 

[finstotheleft]

Thanks for your input Matthew! I agree that finning is more serious, but this brain implant stuff is just shockingly unethical to me. I know they won't care one way or the other no matter what I say, but I have to ***** about it.

The article that I posted is a year old, but the original article that I read on CDNN was just released a few days ago. I'm guessing that the project has been in the works for a while, and the funding has just now gone through?