Dolphins Shrug Off Hot Sauce-Spiked Nets
December 7, 2022 4:33 PM Subscribe
Fishing nets laced with spice did nothing to deter hungry dolphins, leaving fishers searching in their bid to beat depredation. (archive.today link)
Next time, try coating the nets with lemon garlic dill butter. And maybe some shallots.
—signed, Definitely Not A Dolphin
posted by mbrubeck at 4:58 PM on December 7, 2022 [29 favorites]
—signed, Definitely Not A Dolphin
posted by mbrubeck at 4:58 PM on December 7, 2022 [29 favorites]
Eeeeeee chili crisp eeeeeeee
posted by supermedusa at 5:02 PM on December 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 5:02 PM on December 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
I would very much like to engage in a democratic exchange of flavours with the dolphins but I don’t want that exchange to be adversarial.
posted by mhoye at 5:24 PM on December 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 5:24 PM on December 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
I could have told them... never season what you don't want them to eat. No matter the species. I have a border collie who in her youth was prone to chewing on all the table legs and cords in the house. Someone told me to smear them with Tabasco. It got worse after that until she finally got her adult teeth cut and in.
Incidentially, she loves Kimchi.
posted by cybrcamper at 5:48 PM on December 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Incidentially, she loves Kimchi.
posted by cybrcamper at 5:48 PM on December 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Dolphins, it was a hell of a ride but we came out on top. Now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you, my friends. This camera, this camera, this camera, tell the people what you've got going on in your life."
posted by miles per flower at 6:51 PM on December 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by miles per flower at 6:51 PM on December 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
They opted for a hot sauce-laced net when they really needed a cuter condiment-based solution.
A mignonette, as it were.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:05 PM on December 7, 2022
A mignonette, as it were.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:05 PM on December 7, 2022
Humans: Those dolphins are stealing all of our food!
Dolphins: ...
posted by rhizome at 9:03 PM on December 7, 2022 [14 favorites]
Dolphins: ...
posted by rhizome at 9:03 PM on December 7, 2022 [14 favorites]
Man, jealous that they don't get the spicy blowhole.
posted by Carillon at 9:26 PM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Carillon at 9:26 PM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
We strip mine the seas, fisheries drive dolphin populations down by 90% in the Indian Ocean since 1980, and they’re the ones committing depredations.
posted by jamjam at 2:21 AM on December 8, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 2:21 AM on December 8, 2022 [12 favorites]
Me: but did they check that dolphins can detect capsaicin before they embarked on this solution because--
Article: While it’s known that many cetaceans, including bottlenose dolphins, lack four of the five primary tastes—they can only pick up salty—spiciness is registered by a different set of sensory cells through chemesthesis. This process, which signals sensations such as pain and heat, is little studied in the species. Other toothed whales do appear to have the hardware required for capsaicin detection, notes Célérier, but there’s a lot left to learn.
Uh-huh.
This is a common downfall in all kinds of animal aversive devices: people sort of naturally assume that other species have the same opinions about what kinds of sensory experiences are aversive as we do, or ascribe aversive associations for one species into all the species in a mental category. You can see this with advertising on pest devices a lot; consider ultrasonic deterrent devices, which might work okay on rodents but get advertised for everything from cockroaches to pigeons -- pigeons, who have no mechanism to detect frequencies in even the high end of human hearing and have no idea the ultrasonic machine even exists!
Capsaicin is also pretty dose dependent and dolphins are famously neophilic--they like novelty! So it's also totally possible that they can experience capsaicin but are curious about the sensation. There's not a lot in their diets that would have that effect, so hey: free novelty!
TL;DR: before you devise anything intended to repel animals of any species, the first thing you test should be whether animals from that species actually find your experience yucky.
posted by sciatrix at 5:16 AM on December 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
Article: While it’s known that many cetaceans, including bottlenose dolphins, lack four of the five primary tastes—they can only pick up salty—spiciness is registered by a different set of sensory cells through chemesthesis. This process, which signals sensations such as pain and heat, is little studied in the species. Other toothed whales do appear to have the hardware required for capsaicin detection, notes Célérier, but there’s a lot left to learn.
Uh-huh.
This is a common downfall in all kinds of animal aversive devices: people sort of naturally assume that other species have the same opinions about what kinds of sensory experiences are aversive as we do, or ascribe aversive associations for one species into all the species in a mental category. You can see this with advertising on pest devices a lot; consider ultrasonic deterrent devices, which might work okay on rodents but get advertised for everything from cockroaches to pigeons -- pigeons, who have no mechanism to detect frequencies in even the high end of human hearing and have no idea the ultrasonic machine even exists!
Capsaicin is also pretty dose dependent and dolphins are famously neophilic--they like novelty! So it's also totally possible that they can experience capsaicin but are curious about the sensation. There's not a lot in their diets that would have that effect, so hey: free novelty!
TL;DR: before you devise anything intended to repel animals of any species, the first thing you test should be whether animals from that species actually find your experience yucky.
posted by sciatrix at 5:16 AM on December 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
No surprise. Seafood cocktail with a bit of heat is delicious! Does this mean a dolphin likes the same food as me, or do I like the same food as a dolphin?
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:31 AM on December 8, 2022
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:31 AM on December 8, 2022
jealous that they don't get the spicy blowhole.
I wasn't prepared for this phrase.
posted by mhoye at 10:00 AM on December 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
I wasn't prepared for this phrase.
posted by mhoye at 10:00 AM on December 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
The other day, I noticed a local squirrel chowing down on our chili pepper suet. While I was watching out the window, a house sparrow landed right next to the squirrel, ready to eat. In a flash, the squirrel twisted, grabbed the sparrow in it's mouth and jumped to the tree. I ended up opening the door , and I think that made the squirrel drop the sparrow in surprise.
All I'm saying is beware of mammals who like hot sauce 0_0
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 10:14 AM on December 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
All I'm saying is beware of mammals who like hot sauce 0_0
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 10:14 AM on December 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Interesting. I have found chili pepper suet 100% effective at deterring squirrels here. Maybe mine has more capsaicin than yours, but I do notice they don't claim that squirrels won't eat it. I've heard other stories of them developing a taste for it.
posted by jkent at 10:34 AM on December 8, 2022
posted by jkent at 10:34 AM on December 8, 2022
I feel kinda bad for the fisherpeople who have spent months accidentally pepper-spraying themselves for no damn reason.
posted by Optamystic at 1:16 PM on December 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Optamystic at 1:16 PM on December 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Humans: Those dolphins are stealing all of our food!
Dolphins: “So long; and thanks for all the fish!”
posted by TedW at 2:56 PM on December 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
Dolphins: “So long; and thanks for all the fish!”
posted by TedW at 2:56 PM on December 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
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