"Secular Humouresque" wrote in message
...
On 10/9/10 12:39 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sat, 09 Oct 2010 11:09:18 -0400, Secular Humouresque
wrote:

Hanging With Manatees

Manatee: Mmmm, tastes like eagle, or so we like to say here in SWFL.

A little known fact about Manatees that you will not hear from their
fervent, manatee hugging supporters, is how they got to Florida in the
first place.

Of course the official name for them is "West Indian Manatee" which
offers some clue to their origin. It turns out that the Spanish
conquistadors found them very tasty, and they would stock up on them
whenever they could capture some in the so called West Indies, mostly
the island of Hispaniola, now known as Hati and the Dominican
Republic. Capturing them is relatively easy since they are slow and
not very intelligent, unlike dolphins which play around moving boats
all the time and never get hit. The conquistadors would store them in
the bilge and use them as a source of fresh meat aboard ship. Of
course the waters of south Florida are shallow with many hidden
shoals. As a result, the Spanish lost a lot of ships here, and the
manatees would escape into the local environment. And so, another so
called engangered species was born. Meanwhile millions in
governmental resources are being wasted on manatee protection,
sometimes to the point of absurdity. A local power plant, for
example, made changes to increase efficiency, and as a result
discharged less heated water into the Caloosahatchie River.
Environmentalists successfully sued to force reinstatement of the warm
water discharge so that the manatees would not become too cool in the
winter time. In appreciation manatees by the hundreds now congregate
there every winter, literally wallowing in their own fecal matter.



I've only seen that tale about 100 times.

A known fact about the white man is how they got here in the first place,
and what they did shortly thereafter to decimate and even eliminate the
indigenous populations. And, of course, the white man has caused much more
damage to the environment than the manatee.

It must really "gripe" you and those like you that not everything in the
world is set up for your personal pleasure and advantage. Perhaps you can
vote for candidates who want to kill all the manatees. Oh, wait, I'll bet
you do.

--

Non-partisan'r'us.

Bwhahhhhaaaahaaaa.

Actually white man got here sort of like the Mongol's that got here, except
they used boats. There were white men here a lot earlier than Columbus.
China had at least 2 expeditions, the last one about 800 years ago. The
Danes had settlements up near Don's area. There were blue eyed indian
tribes in the south when the Spanish were looking for the Fountain of Youth.
There is the fossil from the Washington State area that is most likely a
white person, that the First Nation people for very great political reasons
will not let be studied. Kennewick Man. there is carbon dating of man in
North America 50,000 years ago. A lot earlier than Clovis Man and the First
Nation people ancestors. And lots of lands were changed by later arrivals,
where the first ones did not get to retain ownership of any land. who
controlled Germany before the Northern Germanic people arrived?