New Scientist of 21 September 2002 has the following in an inspiring interview with Alexandra Morton, a (truly) independent scientist. <How has salmon farming affected the whales? I hear the whales maybe twice a year from my house. It used to be twice a week, before the salmon farms arrived. For the first few years it was all OK and I thought, this is good, it will bring jobs and more families. Then the whole thing started to unravel. The farms brought parasites, bacteria and viruses, and the loud underwater noisemakers they use to repel the seals also drove the whales away. This industry would never have been allowed on land. Youd have a huge excrement smear, and youd have escapees wandering around with oozing sores. There are more fish farms here every year. The place is going straight down. What it boils down to is that the alternative to farmed salmon - wild salmon - are a political nightmare...salmon need so much habitat.> This reminds me of the line from John Gray's recent memorable article on the (human) population crisis: <The lush natural world in which humans evolved is being rapidly transformed into a largely prosthetic environment.> Keith ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list send an email to [log in to unmask] with the words SIGNOFF EVOLUTIONARY-FITNESS in the _body_ of the email. To get a copy of the old archives or the FAQ, look in the EvFit folder at http://briefcase.yahoo.com/dryeraser