"A horrendous slaughter is going on out here."
Thus spake one Peter D. Ward, exasperated biologist from the University of Washington, probably not trying to be all that hyperbolic but apparently not able to help himself because Jesus H. Christ, have you not seen the state of the world these days? The oceans? Nature? Do you not know? You really should know.
"They're nearly wiped out," Ward added, not at all talking about whales, or dolphins, or bluefin tuna, or blind baby albino penguins, or anything else you might wish guess WRT to the horribly abused oceans and the ongoing devastation therein because, well, that would be a rather boring column indeed.
Ward is speaking, sadly, about the amazing chambered nautilus, that ancient, gorgeous, spiraling cephalopod of mystical wonder, the shells of which are prized the world over for their beauty and shine, splendid design and mesmerizing pearlescence, so much so that the astonishing creature is now apparently being harvested, hacked, earringed, necklaced and paper-weighted into near extinction. Isn't that grand?
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/10/26/notes102611.DTL#ixzz1bsomdA00