>"They're not too meticulous about who their partners are. They just have this kind of a sexual urge, and then they'll engage in activity with whomever seems to be in the area, and if that's a female, great," Gjeltema said.
>"But if there are not enough females around or there are only males around, they may express that sexual behavior on whatever individual may be in the vicinity," she said.
This is not even particularly unique to manatees. It would be good if information like this was more widely circulated in basic biology classes to dismiss certain notions about what constitutes “natural” sexual behaviors and preferences.
I wouldn't call this behaviour a "preference" as such however. Engaging in coitus with the nearest available object out of sexual frustration is probably more akin to using a fleshlight than our "in love with the same gender" definition of homosexuality.
More context [1]. This was measured in very shallow water with poor circulation and heavy dark algae (which heats water) and is also similar or less than readings in 2017 and 2009.
> Even if the 101.1° water temp isn’t verified, it was exceptionally hot in the Florida Keys, and it remains that way.
> Water temperatures at other buoys, and remote sensing using satellites, have recorded water temps in the mid to even upper 90s around the Florida Keys.
> This has resulted in brutal heat for the land areas.
It may be that the Manatee bay sensors are in a uniquely hot location but the temperatures there will be negatively impacting wildlife; outside that location water temperatures seem pretty darn elevated.
> Unusually warm water (as little as 1 °C above usual summer means) can cause the breakdown of the symbiosis and the mass expulsion of zooxanthellae, referred to as “coral bleaching.” [1]
Coral bleaching isn't typical and is a direct indication of water temperatures exceeding the max habitable temperatures. You can look at coral, or manatees, or algal blooms to confirm that our present conditions are anomalous. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence but the research is in regarding rising sea temperatures.
Comments like this used to matter, now it’s also starting to sound like it’s own form of denial. I’m not attacking you but let’s face it, we’re cooking our environment and all all other creatures are suffering.
The best we can say is, “at least this is the best time to be alive for humans”.
None of those strike me as a true duplicate of the Smithsonian magazine article. Different angles for the same phenomenon, sure, but they each provide valuable contributions and context for the event.
It's a dupe. An article from days ago covering the same story as the others and most of the discussion 205 comments in is on that first link. Don't need more threads repeating especially submitted days later when the convo settled on the one thread
How else would these companies that are pushing boundaries in sustainability innovate? Look, there’s no charger in the phone box to save the environment! /s
“It’s not even the record for Manatee Bay, the observing site where the data came from, said David Zierden, state climatologist at the Florida Climate Center in Tallahassee. The record for the Manatee Bay site is 102 degrees. It was set on Aug. 15, 2017. Going further back, Zierden said the site recorded a temperature of 100 degrees in 2010.
Something to point out: the Manatee Bay gauge is very close to land, south of Biscayne Bay, and measures the water temperature at a depth of 5 feet.
Keep in mind that the observations in Manatee bay are in shallow water in a closed off cove with dark seagrass on the bottom,” Zierden said. “I would not consider them a “sea surface temperature”, as that implies open ocean.”
>> This year feels suddenly different. And it seems everyone is coming to a realization that something is coming.
I feel like we went through this last year when the UK went above 40c. And that year “Australia was burning”. And that summer the “Amazon Rainforest was on fire”. It’s sensational and great click bait but looking at any of these events in isolation and thinking “oh yeah that’s the sign we’ve finally fucked it” is silly. If we keep doing what we’re doing we will fuck it eventually but lukewarm tap water probably isn’t the sign that we’ve tipped over the edge of the precipice.
I think it's an interesting way that GP found to connect to the record heat though. I mentioned to my mother that 1980 was actually the hottest year on record up to that time (the theory was solid and the effects were measurable even then, and now 1980 would be a cool year), and she said she remembered that because she had backed her car into a tree while trying to find some shade due to the heat at the time.
25 comments
[ 247 ms ] story [ 707 ms ] thread>"But if there are not enough females around or there are only males around, they may express that sexual behavior on whatever individual may be in the vicinity," she said.
This is not even particularly unique to manatees. It would be good if information like this was more widely circulated in basic biology classes to dismiss certain notions about what constitutes “natural” sexual behaviors and preferences.
[1] https://www.savethemanatee.org/red-tide/
[1] https://www.news4jax.com/weather/2023/07/26/are-water-temps-...
> Even if the 101.1° water temp isn’t verified, it was exceptionally hot in the Florida Keys, and it remains that way.
> Water temperatures at other buoys, and remote sensing using satellites, have recorded water temps in the mid to even upper 90s around the Florida Keys.
> This has resulted in brutal heat for the land areas.
It may be that the Manatee bay sensors are in a uniquely hot location but the temperatures there will be negatively impacting wildlife; outside that location water temperatures seem pretty darn elevated.
[1] https://www.seatemperature.org/north-america/united-states/k...
Coral bleaching isn't typical and is a direct indication of water temperatures exceeding the max habitable temperatures. You can look at coral, or manatees, or algal blooms to confirm that our present conditions are anomalous. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence but the research is in regarding rising sea temperatures.
[1]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12237-014-9875-5
The best we can say is, “at least this is the best time to be alive for humans”.
More discussion from days ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36877928
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36855773
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36869296
Something to point out: the Manatee Bay gauge is very close to land, south of Biscayne Bay, and measures the water temperature at a depth of 5 feet.
Keep in mind that the observations in Manatee bay are in shallow water in a closed off cove with dark seagrass on the bottom,” Zierden said. “I would not consider them a “sea surface temperature”, as that implies open ocean.”
https://www.news-press.com/story/weather/2023/07/26/record-w...
This year feels suddenly different. And it seems everyone is coming to a realization that something is coming.
I might be a climate refugee in a decade.
I feel like we went through this last year when the UK went above 40c. And that year “Australia was burning”. And that summer the “Amazon Rainforest was on fire”. It’s sensational and great click bait but looking at any of these events in isolation and thinking “oh yeah that’s the sign we’ve finally fucked it” is silly. If we keep doing what we’re doing we will fuck it eventually but lukewarm tap water probably isn’t the sign that we’ve tipped over the edge of the precipice.