Sharks are freezing to death it is so cold now

[tursiops]

These were indeed vertebrates that had been stunned.

Oops, i mistyped. I'll change it.

 

[tursiops]

I'm sorry guys, but this whole discussion is on the fine line between astounding and just stupid.

There has been one Facebook posting by a group that survives on donations, and that has been picked up and reverberated by all the viral news media. All else is derivative information. A Google search is meaningless....one person says something they invented and everybody else quotes it as fact. The are all quoting each other, raising the incredibility bar a little bit each time. It is like a reverberation chamber that gets louder and louder.

You need a little detachment and skepticism and critical thinking here. Let the facts come out...NMFS is doing tissue necropsies, and they will possibly find something out. Think about it: the weather is not nearly as cold as it can get, neither is the water. The sharks strand all the time in that area. All those Google hits are beginning to morph into the sharks being frozen when they washed ashore. Jeez.

Here is a reputable science article on strandings and their causes.
Highlights :: Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office
From this article:
"Cold stunning is a phenomenon that occurs only in sea turtles. Sea turtles are cold-blooded animals, meaning they are unable to regulate their own internal body temperature. In late autumn, as water temperatures continue to drop in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, turtles begin to migrate south to warmer waters off the Southeast U.S. and Caribbean. During this period some animals, typically juveniles, are unable to migrate soon enough and suffer from a hypothermic reaction. When this happens their heart rate, circulation, and mobility decrease, and they are often found floating in the water or stranded on local beaches. If these animals are left untreated, they likely will not survive."
Note this relates to causes of strandings, not causes of weird in-water behavior as The Chairman has discussed.

Here is a report on dolphin strandings in Massachusetts. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/capecod_mass_stranding_factsheet2012.pdf
Note figure 1 for a decade of data.

Here's a bit on shark-stranding research. Shark Strandings

 

[Texasguy]

May I ask why are you trying to misguide the thread with a specific "cold stunning" in turtles while the topic of the thread is "cold shock" in fish? Would you like to make a separate thread in a sea turtle forum?

 

[KenGordon]

May I ask why are you trying to misguide the thread with a specific "cold stunning" in turtles while the topic of the thread is "cold shock" in fish? Would you like to make a separate thread in a sea turtle forum?

It looks to me that he is pointing out that sharks, and maybe fish in general, do not suffer from cold shock. That seems quite pertinent.

Story A: extreme cold water stuns sharks and they strand.
Story B: some sharks stand every year anyway, and here some are being found frozen on the beach.

 

[Texasguy]

You are right, cold shock in fish is dismissed as FAKE news: http://www.fecpl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/JFB-Donaldson-etal-2008.pdf

When I am wrong, I am wrong. Sorry everyone.

 

[Russjstewart]

Thanks for the link to the fecpl article, it is on my reading list

Cheers

 

[lowviz]

You are right, cold shock in fish is dismissed as FAKE news: ...//...

IMHO, be careful of 'cherry picking science'. It needs to be seen 'in toto'. There is a balance to be had. Sharks aren't dying right and left up here...

OTOH, there is a massive yearly migration of Gulf Stream tropicals that find our winter to be lethal. Happens every year, they get recycled into local stock. Nothing is wasted.

If you really want something interesting that will take forever to grasp, search on 'heat shock proteins'. Fascinating subject.

 

[RayfromTX]

It is nice that some of our regular members are educated in topics of interest to us. Tursiops is a marine scientist and was simply trying to help us to not be misled. I appreciate your patience with us @tursiops . You never know who you are chatting with on this site. Dive safe y'all!

 

[The Chairman]

IMHO, be careful of 'cherry picking science'. It needs to be seen 'in toto'.

I agree with this, but there's a lot to be said for citizen science. Scientists can't be everywhere and see every phenomenon. They often rely on divers, just like us, to tell them what we've seen and relate the conditions we saw it in.

 

[lowviz]

...but there's a lot to be said for citizen science. ...

I strongly advocate citizen science. We need much more of it.

Just pointing out that a personal bias can be supported by valid work if you ignore conflicting valid work. One needs to keep an open mind...