Something statistical struck a nerve:
Even if the reports of a dismal season prove true, any forensic work is complicated by the oddities of this year’s weather, with a severe drought in the states along the Gulf of Mexico interrupted by spring flooding on the Mississippi River that brought millions of gallons of fresh water into the marshes. In addition, white shrimp crops have fluctuated over the decades for various reasons. (A BP spokesman said in a statement that some preliminary sampling indicated that the 2011 white shrimp population was within the historical range of variability.) ...
But while all scientists acknowledge the difficulty of determining a cause for a reported decline in the shrimp crops, some say there is evidence that is at the very least suggestive of a culprit.
Joris L. van der Ham, a researcher at Louisiana State University who has been studying white shrimp, said he had found more white shrimp than usual last winter in estuaries that were affected by the BP oil spill. That abundance might have been due in part, he said, to a decrease in the number of people out shrimping last year, but a significant decline in this year’s season would undercut that assumption.
While cautioning that his study is incomplete, Dr. van der Ham speculated that certain compounds in the oil may have stunted the shrimp’s growth rate, and that the large numbers he found last year might have never made it out into the gulf to spawn, thus explaining a missing generation.
via www.nytimes.com
Just one comment, and it contains zero economic content. Focusing on the parenthetical in the first paragraph, the fact that the shrimp populations are within the range of historic variation says little to the point of whether the BP oil spill negatively affected the shrimp crop. A number of bad things could have happened to the shrimp populations over time, the BP oil spill being another one. Being within the range of historic variation only says that the BP oil spill is not the worst thing ever.
It's kindof like saying, hey, I'm not the worst boyfriend ever, I'm maybe the second or third worst boyfriend you ever had.
*I was wondering if I spelled "sciencey" correctly so I used the Google and, of course, the first suggestion was from the Urban Dictionary.
