Good grief, great gobs of guano!

[Taro Toporific]

Great cormorants turning fish into guanoYomiuri Shimbun / March 2
The environment of a small island in Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture, has been damaged by a huge flock of great cormorants, aquatic birds that are gobbling up local fish populations and producing unhealthy amounts of waste..... In late February, about 10,000 cormorants from other parts of the country crowd onto the tiny island--just two kilometers around--to breed and nest. ...
....Worshipers who visit Hogonji temple and Tsukubusuma Shrine in the island are annoyed by the smell caused by the cormorants' droppings. According to local people, the heavy piles of guano and loss of vegetation have even caused an increase in landslides on the island in recent years. ... local people put fake eggs in the birds' nests to replace real eggs as a kind of avian birth control measure....

[Alcazar]

Someone should tell them guano is very valuable-they can sell it like the Nauruans did.

Problem is now that they have dug up their entire South Pacific nation made of birdshit. They got very wealthy there for a few decades-the Nauruans once owned the largest office building in Melbourne at the time, but they don't know what to do now the guano is all gone. 90% of Nauru is also a wasteland as a result of the phosphate (guano) mining.

[Taro Toporific]

They got very wealthy there for a few decades-the .. once owned the largest office buildings ... but they don't know what to do now that all is gone. 90% of NauruNippon is also a wasteland

Here's a concrete solution...


the original Tokyo picture ...
http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Mar/2004322133778937873713.jpg

[Caustic Saint]

Here's a concrete solution...

What's creepy is I couldn't even see the line down the middle of that pic until I downloaded it and blew it up.

Are my magic glasses failing me already?

[Alcazar]

Here's a concrete solution...

[Captain Japan]

Someone should tell them guano is very valuable-they can sell it like the Nauruans did.

But there's money in refugees. That's where Australia was sending them a few years ago. Nauru got a few million out of that.

Nauru is an interesting place. I've been there quite a few times. It is an almost perfectly circular rock and in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific.

But there was once money in bird shit. Nauru had money to burn 15 years ago. They were donating buildings to the Marshall Islands. Their airline had a large fleet that travelled all through the Pacific. Now they need people to donate them buildings and their airline has one plane.

On approach to the airport you can see the bird shit mine outside the left side of the plane (I suppose that depends on the wind, but I landed there over a half dozen times and that was always the case).

[String]

...I landed there over a half dozen times

How come you went there so often?

Whenever I hear about Nauru, I can't help but think about the pitiful little island nation in Cat's Cradle. Praise Bokonon!

[Big Booger]

Now that chicken is off the menu, why not have yaki cormorant?

[Shinigami]

The environment of a small island in Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture, has been damaged by a huge flock of great cormorants, aquatic birds that are gobbling up local fish populations and producing unhealthy amounts of waste..... In late February, about 10,000 cormorants from other parts of the country crowd onto the tiny island--just two kilometers around--to breed and nest. ...
....Worshipers who visit Hogonji temple and Tsukubusuma Shrine in the island are annoyed by the smell caused by the cormorants' droppings. According to local people, the heavy piles of guano and loss of vegetation have even caused an increase in landslides on the island in recent years. ... local people put fake eggs in the birds' nests to replace real eggs as a kind of avian birth control measure....

Oh this is a bunch of crap --pardon the pun-- where the hell are the birds supposed to go?? They've long since been run out of every other place on the planet....

This sounds to me like just another attempt to come up with an excuse to kill their fishing competition.....

Just like the japaneses dolphin slaughter....



http://www.freethedolphins.org/drive_fisheries_10-2003.htm

[Captain Japan]

...I landed there over a half dozen times

How come you went there so often?

I used to have to transit there in going to Kiribati. There are only two ways into Kiribati - via Nauru or the Marshall Islands. I was heavily involved in performing fraud for Japanese construction companies looking to get work all through the Pacific. Now I don't travel anymore but the fraud I still do indeed perform.

I took a couple of great photos of Nauru. I'll see if I can dig them up.

[Taro Toporific]

...I landed there over a half dozen times

How come you went there so often?

I used to have to transit there in going to Kiribati..

Here's photos of Captain Japan's hotel, the four star "GunkanjimaLand" on Nauru.

[kamome]

Great cormorants turning fish into guanoYomiuri Shimbun / March 2
The environment of a small island in Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture, has been damaged by a huge flock of great cormorants, aquatic birds that are gobbling up local fish populations and producing unhealthy amounts of waste.....

Ukai - Traditional Cormorant Fishing in Japan - Photographs by Frantisek Staud at phototravels.net.

Ukai, or cormorant fishing, is a traditional method of river fishing that has been practiced in Japan for some 1300 years. This method involves fishermen using cormorant birds on leashes to catch sweetfish (such as the Ayu).

I knew those lazy cousins of mine would find a job someday!


Mariko Sawaki, one of the few Ukai fisherwomen in Japan.


Ukai fishermen attach a leash around a Cormorant's neck.