The main premise behind the article is the threat to benthic creatures (i.e. bottom-dwelling) from trawling operations by fishermen and other marauders with a similar lack of concern for environmental destruction. Pertinent to Casper the Ghost Octopod is the presence of manganese nodules as it's easier to dredge the materials from the bottom than to mine for them. Casper likes to hang about on such nodules so, without protection, he's screwed. (Science Daily: Newly discovered 'Casper' octopod at risk from deep-sea mining)
Here's the threat:
"Presumably, the female octopod then broods these eggs, probably for as long as it takes until they hatch -- which may be a number of years," says Autun Purser of the Alfred Wegener Institute's Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.
"The brooding observation is important as these sponges only grow in some areas on small, hard nodules or rocky crusts of interest to mining companies because of the metal they contain," including manganese, he adds. "The removal of these nodules may therefore put the lifecycle of these octopods at risk."
Here's another at longer range but there's not really any way to make an assessment; it's like looking at the surface of the Moon.
Of one thing we can be sure, the scientists will go back.
Here's the threat:
"Presumably, the female octopod then broods these eggs, probably for as long as it takes until they hatch -- which may be a number of years," says Autun Purser of the Alfred Wegener Institute's Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany.
"The brooding observation is important as these sponges only grow in some areas on small, hard nodules or rocky crusts of interest to mining companies because of the metal they contain," including manganese, he adds. "The removal of these nodules may therefore put the lifecycle of these octopods at risk."
- Science Daily
We all get it with the threat but, for the moment, we're interested in the strange. Casper lives at about four thousand meters or two and a half miles below the surface. It's extraordinary that a creature so seemingly delicate could ever survive there.
This photograph of a ghostlike octopod, observed at the Necker Ridge, is almost certainly an undescribed species and may not belong to any described genus.
Credit: Courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016
We all get it with the threat but, for the moment, we're interested in the strange. Casper lives at about four thousand meters or two and a half miles below the surface. It's extraordinary that a creature so seemingly delicate could ever survive there.
This photograph of a ghostlike octopod, observed at the Necker Ridge, is almost certainly an undescribed species and may not belong to any described genus.
Credit: Courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016
No need to flog the 'life will find a way' theme either since we would be crushed like bugs at such a depth.
The article contains a great deal about the threat but relatively little about the characteristics of Casper. I looked about for more but only found other rags quoting the same Science Daily article I'm using as a reference.
One immediate question is what possible need could he have for that huge head. He's probably not doing any advanced physics so why should he need such a brain case.
Herewith and not simply to flog the point of the environmental consideration but rather it shows how little physical information was presented:
"As long-lived creatures, recovery will take a long time and may not be possible if all the hard seafloor is removed," Purser says. "This would be a great loss to biodiversity in the deep sea and may also have important knock on effects. Octopods are sizable creatures, which eat a lot of other smaller creatures, so if the octopods are removed, the other populations will change in difficult to predict ways."
- Science Daily
I see sizable in the description but we have no scale and it's difficult to assess.
Here's another at longer range but there's not really any way to make an assessment; it's like looking at the surface of the Moon.
Of one thing we can be sure, the scientists will go back.
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