Sharks are freezing to death it is so cold now

[Storker]

"Citizen science" is great for providing observations and anecdotal "evidence". However, it takes a trained scientist to translate those observations into valid science.

So, the general citizen should be very, very careful about making blanket statements about the state of things. Just as they should be very, very careful about making blanket statements about medical science, but should leave that to trained medical professionals.

 

[tursiops]

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.

I'm not sure "fake news" is the right conclusion. The link you provide is a 2008 review of 191 papers published from 1947-2008, with no indication in the review or in the titles of the papers that sharks have even been examined for cold-shock. The citations in the papers are almost all about one species or another of bony fish, like salmon or cod or trout or sea bass. The conclusions of the review are that a lot more research needs to be done, and non-bony fish (like sharks) are not even mentioned there, either.

The most generous thing to say is that cold-shock in sharks is an open question. But a Facebook posting that has such speculation is hardly the definitive answer to that question, especially when there are alternatives to explain the only real fact: three dead sharks found on the beach, frozen.

 

[The Chairman]

One needs to keep an open mind...

Effects of the Winter 2000–2001 Freezes on Common Snook in Florida

 

[tursiops]

"Citizen science" is great for providing observations and anecdotal "evidence". However, it takes a trained scientist to translate those observations into valid science.

So, the general citizen should be very, very careful about making blanket statements about the state of things. Just as they should be very, very careful about making blanket statements about medical science, but should leave that to trained medical professionals.

This.
Citizen science has proven useful for some types of data collection, especially if done under protocols with some verification data. Random observations, often called anecdotes, not so much. The whole big-deal on citizen science is getting lots of data, and hoping the inherent errors will cancel out. The biggest problem is bias, either intended or untended. For example: https://www.nature.com/news/rise-of-the-citizen-scientist-1.18192 and https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320713002693&usg=AOvVaw12pACX07fvCl5CJMDW4sfI and https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10841-014-9676-y&usg=AOvVaw1LW_s-B_1Jhbmjn-s2N_pL.

 

[tursiops]

Effects of the Winter 2000–2001 Freezes on Common Snook in Florida

Yes, it gets cold, yes, fish can die. They did not freeze, they did not strand; what is your point?

 

[The Chairman]

Yes, it gets cold, yes, fish can die.

Yeah. That's the point.

Big weather swings are part and parcel of Global warming. The deniers want to see this as evidence against Global warming when it really is a symptom of it all. I've seen it too hot in the Keys in the summer and watch the coral fade as the zooxanthellae exits their host. Without that symbiosis, the coral polyps will die in a few days bleaching the coral heads and allowing the scuz to grow. I've seen it too cold in the Keys where the same phenomenon happens with even more coral bleaching. Something's amiss in our oceans. I'm not sure we can fix it, but I hate to see it happen.