I passed my last driving test yesterday. If you do not know, I am in australia and we have a VERY in depth drivers education system to get permission to roam around on four wheels.
I'll also be talking about our sharks after the break, so please read through, it's important!
When you're 15/16 you get to take a 'keys to life' test, which is a written test to make sure you know the basics of road rules, who to give way to and so on.
Then when you're 16/17 you can go to your local licencing centre to get your first learners permit. This allows you to be out on the road around other cars ...with an instructor in the passengers side. During this time you are to learn how to drive, park, turn in a circle, not crash and all that sort of thing. Then you can go for your Logbook. Which is ANOTHER test, with an accredited driving examiner, where you'll drive around, following their directions and obeying road rules and so on. If you pass this one (and it'll take you at least 2 attempts, on average, due to nerves or various other reasons) then you get your log book. Dun na da na! You now get to drive around (with L plates and a licenced driver in the passenger seat) and have your hours of driving logged. You have to drive for more than 10 minutes at a time or it doesn't count. I needed to get 25 hours in at least 6 months, but the number has gone up recently in laws, to 50 or 100 or something. Now, supposing you do aaaall this, are you allowed to drive on your own? NOPE!
You get to take ANOTHER test! This one is kinda irritating. It's basically a video game without the entertaining part. You sit at a computer and click the mouse when it is 'safe' to do something, for instance overtake, slow down, turn and so on. And when you finish it? You have no idea if you pass or fail until you go back to your local shire or licencing agency to see if you get your licence!
That is where I'm up to. :D I have a piece of paper that says I have my licence, probationary, at least, and for 2 years I have a curfew! I can't drive after midnight -- it's to reduce the number of P-platers that are driving home drunk after a party or clubbing or whatever. So excited. I can now drive on my own! :D:D:D
But, now, on a more serious note, sharks.
Ooooh scary. Not ...really. They're not vicious mean horrible meat-eating things aaah! No, they're a vital part of the oceanic ecosystem and it's human vindictiveness that has pushed these wonderful things to the brink of extinction out of FEAR, because you know, they look like torpedoes with teeth. They ARE torpedoes with teeth, but they are necessary torpedoes with teeth.
Every year (insert accurate number here) ~170 000 sharks are killed for their FINS. The rest of them is very rarely eaten or used in any way, shape, manner or form. Some are just hauled out of the water, had their fins cut off while they are STILL ALIVE and then thrown back into the water to slowly drown and/or starve to death. Yes. Drown.
Sharks have to keep swimming, or be in a current, to pass water through their gills or they die. They can only breed when a whale dies naturally out to sea, floating around on the currents etc etc. Why? Because there is SO MUCH FOOD that the feeding frenzy turns into 'oh god so full' and they aren't HUNGRY at that particular point in time for a week or more, because there is food right -there- and more than enough for everyone, so what do you do when your primary biological focus has been to feed? You switch to the next biological focus. Breeding.
So a dead whale, while tragic, means that there are BABY SHARKS EVERYWHERE YAY! Adorable little eating things. Unfortunately, a shark may take as long as 13 years to mature. Lets put this into perspective shall we?
A blue whale calf suckles with its mother for 2 years, and will live with her for a minimum of 7 years, before striking out on his own (If male) or remain protected and safe within her own family pod for the rest of her life. Around which time, they are capable of breeding. IE; fully mature.
A chimpanzee baby will live with their mother for 12 years.
A horse looks after their foal for 6 months. At 3-4 years of age they are fully mature and able to breed.
A cat cares for her kittens for 6 weeks before they are weaned. At 6 months they are fully mature and able to breed (because, you know, this is when you spay/neuter your pet).
Sea turtles lay their eggs in a beach, and the young, if they make it to the water and survive their first -day- in the ocean, can take up to 25 years to mature. 1 in 1000 sea turtles that hatch will reach maturity.
An elephant calf will take around 12 years, but I'm pretty sure that they don't mature to full sexuality until they are 20.
And with nearly -each- of the 'longer maturing' rates, the infant spends the majority, if not all, of that time with their mother, learning, growing, typically safe. I do not think sharks have that sort of maternal bond.
Some lay eggs, and forget about them, leaving the little pups to sink or swim on their own. Others give birth to live pups and we presume do the same. There is very little actually -known- about sharks other than they are carnivorous, have lived nearly unchanged since the dinosaurs roamed, they grow new teeth constantly, have more 'teeth' not scales on their skin, and it makes them travel that much -faster- through the water than a smoother surface would. And they are killed, vindictively. For every shark attack -- that is -attack-, where someone gets bitten but survives -- ten sharks get -killed-. Just for that.
And now my state's government is making strong words about removing the great white sharks protected status. They are nearly EXTINCT, and history shows that when you remove an apex predator, the ENTIRE ecosystem below them collapses. You cut off the top or destroy the bottom and the whole process is a catastrophe. Please. Please. Save our sharks.
http://www.saveoursharks.com.au/Save_Our_Sharks_-_Why_Save_Sharks.html
Please follow the links and sign a petition for my country, and/or find a similar location/petition for your own. The oceans are not separated by fences or walls, all the oceans touch and mix from one into another. I don't want to know what will happen, if history remembers the day that mankind signed the eviction notice on yet ANOTHER species.
~Think of the Possibilities.
I'll also be talking about our sharks after the break, so please read through, it's important!
When you're 15/16 you get to take a 'keys to life' test, which is a written test to make sure you know the basics of road rules, who to give way to and so on.
Then when you're 16/17 you can go to your local licencing centre to get your first learners permit. This allows you to be out on the road around other cars ...with an instructor in the passengers side. During this time you are to learn how to drive, park, turn in a circle, not crash and all that sort of thing. Then you can go for your Logbook. Which is ANOTHER test, with an accredited driving examiner, where you'll drive around, following their directions and obeying road rules and so on. If you pass this one (and it'll take you at least 2 attempts, on average, due to nerves or various other reasons) then you get your log book. Dun na da na! You now get to drive around (with L plates and a licenced driver in the passenger seat) and have your hours of driving logged. You have to drive for more than 10 minutes at a time or it doesn't count. I needed to get 25 hours in at least 6 months, but the number has gone up recently in laws, to 50 or 100 or something. Now, supposing you do aaaall this, are you allowed to drive on your own? NOPE!
You get to take ANOTHER test! This one is kinda irritating. It's basically a video game without the entertaining part. You sit at a computer and click the mouse when it is 'safe' to do something, for instance overtake, slow down, turn and so on. And when you finish it? You have no idea if you pass or fail until you go back to your local shire or licencing agency to see if you get your licence!
That is where I'm up to. :D I have a piece of paper that says I have my licence, probationary, at least, and for 2 years I have a curfew! I can't drive after midnight -- it's to reduce the number of P-platers that are driving home drunk after a party or clubbing or whatever. So excited. I can now drive on my own! :D:D:D
But, now, on a more serious note, sharks.
Ooooh scary. Not ...really. They're not vicious mean horrible meat-eating things aaah! No, they're a vital part of the oceanic ecosystem and it's human vindictiveness that has pushed these wonderful things to the brink of extinction out of FEAR, because you know, they look like torpedoes with teeth. They ARE torpedoes with teeth, but they are necessary torpedoes with teeth.
Every year (insert accurate number here) ~170 000 sharks are killed for their FINS. The rest of them is very rarely eaten or used in any way, shape, manner or form. Some are just hauled out of the water, had their fins cut off while they are STILL ALIVE and then thrown back into the water to slowly drown and/or starve to death. Yes. Drown.
Sharks have to keep swimming, or be in a current, to pass water through their gills or they die. They can only breed when a whale dies naturally out to sea, floating around on the currents etc etc. Why? Because there is SO MUCH FOOD that the feeding frenzy turns into 'oh god so full' and they aren't HUNGRY at that particular point in time for a week or more, because there is food right -there- and more than enough for everyone, so what do you do when your primary biological focus has been to feed? You switch to the next biological focus. Breeding.
So a dead whale, while tragic, means that there are BABY SHARKS EVERYWHERE YAY! Adorable little eating things. Unfortunately, a shark may take as long as 13 years to mature. Lets put this into perspective shall we?
A blue whale calf suckles with its mother for 2 years, and will live with her for a minimum of 7 years, before striking out on his own (If male) or remain protected and safe within her own family pod for the rest of her life. Around which time, they are capable of breeding. IE; fully mature.
A chimpanzee baby will live with their mother for 12 years.
A horse looks after their foal for 6 months. At 3-4 years of age they are fully mature and able to breed.
A cat cares for her kittens for 6 weeks before they are weaned. At 6 months they are fully mature and able to breed (because, you know, this is when you spay/neuter your pet).
Sea turtles lay their eggs in a beach, and the young, if they make it to the water and survive their first -day- in the ocean, can take up to 25 years to mature. 1 in 1000 sea turtles that hatch will reach maturity.
An elephant calf will take around 12 years, but I'm pretty sure that they don't mature to full sexuality until they are 20.
And with nearly -each- of the 'longer maturing' rates, the infant spends the majority, if not all, of that time with their mother, learning, growing, typically safe. I do not think sharks have that sort of maternal bond.
Some lay eggs, and forget about them, leaving the little pups to sink or swim on their own. Others give birth to live pups and we presume do the same. There is very little actually -known- about sharks other than they are carnivorous, have lived nearly unchanged since the dinosaurs roamed, they grow new teeth constantly, have more 'teeth' not scales on their skin, and it makes them travel that much -faster- through the water than a smoother surface would. And they are killed, vindictively. For every shark attack -- that is -attack-, where someone gets bitten but survives -- ten sharks get -killed-. Just for that.
And now my state's government is making strong words about removing the great white sharks protected status. They are nearly EXTINCT, and history shows that when you remove an apex predator, the ENTIRE ecosystem below them collapses. You cut off the top or destroy the bottom and the whole process is a catastrophe. Please. Please. Save our sharks.
http://www.saveoursharks.com.au/Save_Our_Sharks_-_Why_Save_Sharks.html
Please follow the links and sign a petition for my country, and/or find a similar location/petition for your own. The oceans are not separated by fences or walls, all the oceans touch and mix from one into another. I don't want to know what will happen, if history remembers the day that mankind signed the eviction notice on yet ANOTHER species.
~Think of the Possibilities.
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