
The Last Days of the Blue-Blood Harvest - GW150914
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/blood-in-the-water/559229/?single_page=true
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aoki
it's not the point of the article, but i find it fascinating that this
industry has managed to figure out how to capture >400k wild animals per year
and return ~90% of them alive to the ocean after harvesting their blood with a
giant needle.

there must be an interesting story here about how they figured out that they
needed to do this with a sustainable take rate (unlike most commercial fishing
industries).

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eksu
commercial fishing industries have a vested interest in achieving the maximum
sustainable yield.

furthermore, legislation like quota systems are generally supported because it
gives companies a golden ticket to harvest while denying newcomers from
entering the space.

~~~
aoki
yet in practice overfishing occurs in species after species; individual
interests do not always align with the macro interests.

that's why i think there's an interesting story lurking here. there were
probably a small number of technocratic players involved (maybe even one) who
were able to specify how the chain should work.

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specialist
Monitoring and enforcement have been tough (infeasible). I’ve been away from
conservation for a while now, but I’d hope it’s gotten better with satelites,
drones.

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jpatokal
Horseshoe crabs are rather extraordinary creatures. They're essentially
unchanged for 450 million years, and look like it:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab)

The roe is edible too, but has to be prepared very carefully as it can contain
the same poison (tetratodoxin) as blowfish/fugu:

[https://praneesthaikitchen.com/2013/01/28/horseshoe-crab-
egg...](https://praneesthaikitchen.com/2013/01/28/horseshoe-crab-egg-salad-
recipe/)

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throwaway010718
"Horseshoe-crab blood is exquisitely sensitive to toxins from bacteria. It is
used to test for contamination during the manufacture of anything that might
go inside the human body"

This seems like an impossibly random discovery. Did scientists test the blood
of various animals until they finally found an optimum with horseshoe crabs ?

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GuiA
Please read the article entirely before rushing to comment...

 _”Bang, a pathologist, was interested in the creature’s primitive immune
system. He settled on a protocol of injecting bacteria from seawater directly
into horseshoe crabs, which cause their blood to clump into “stringy masses.”

Bang suspected this clotting had a purpose. It immobilized the bacteria,
sealing off the rest of the horseshoe crab’s body from an invading pathogen.
Intriguingly, their blood turned to gel even if he boiled the bacteria
injection for five or 10 minutes first. This should have killed the bacteria
and sterilized the injected solution. Bang realized the blood was sensitive
not just to live bacteria but to bacterial toxins that persist even after
sterilization.”_

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Or you can just post your comment without reading the long article and some
gloomy scold will do the hard work for you :)

This reminds me of how the best way to get the correct answer to a question on
a technical forum isn't to ask, but to post the wrong answer. Someone will be
along shortly to correct you.

[https://xkcd.com/386/](https://xkcd.com/386/)

~~~
shagie
For this, I prefer The Codeless Code and The Purple Beggar
[http://thecodelesscode.com/case/170](http://thecodelesscode.com/case/170)

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_“My walk once took me past a beggar whose sign read, You do not DARE throw
coins at ME! His body was purple with bruises but his bowl was always full.”_

Perfect.

I could have sworn that this principle was an internet adage like Godwin's law
or Poe's law, but I couldn't find one.

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fallingfrog
Was expecting an article about the French Revolution. Disappoint.

~~~
himom
No crowdshare guillotine apps yet, but I hear Khosla Ventures and KPCB want to
invest to materialize this category.

