Shark Wank
The NYT newsblog The Lede has a piece about the frilled shark caught off the coast of Japan, plus a video link.

The exceptional coolness and strangeness of the beastie, however, does not stop people in the comments from quickly going to town with the fappery. In fact, the fun starts with the second comment:

Given the Japanese fishing industry’s habit of dredging everything up off the sea bottom and destroying entire habitats’ populations, I don’t think I’m surprised that they’re dragging up deep-water squid, and now, this shark. I doubt that these are the first, or will be the last, examples.

And they're off!

There's Japan-bashing, impugning of the researchers who captured the shark, poorly informed opinions, a reference to "shark-hugging hippies", jokes about sushi, jokes about the shark's resemblance to family members, more Japan-bashing, arguments over whether it's a shark or an eel, and more, over the course of some 120+ comments.

And if you're looking for the funny, you can do well with David at comment #116.

ETA: My new favorite comment: Hi. I’m not dead. — Posted by Eel Shark

It's not until #168 that someone finally makes a Steve Zissou joke. The thread is still chugging along, still with more Japan-bashing, and some solid (if a bit tl;dr-ish) comments enjoining the readers to, you know, get all the facts before spouting off. Not that it stops anyone from continuing to spout off about the rape of the oceans and who's got the worst ecological record, etc. Good times.

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	puipui 2007-01-26 10:23 pm UTC (link)
	and they don't even live in the deep ocean Aquatic leopards would be so awesome. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pantyless_angel 2007-01-26 10:25 pm UTC (link)
	Wouldn't they? That would be like the best sea animal ever. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2007-01-27 01:57 am UTC (link)
	There's a legendary African beastie called the morou-ngou which is sometimes described as a web-footed aquatic leopard (with gills yet!). One other description (admittedly for a fantasy RPG) made it sound like a big river otter, which is quite possibly what it really was... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	littlest_lurker 2007-01-27 05:21 am UTC (link)
	Well, there's already leopard seals, and those bastards are scary enough for both species. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2007-01-27 07:26 am UTC (link)
	OMG leopard seals. Way the hell scarier than most sharks. They are out to get you. D: (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

littlest_lurker
2007-01-27 07:35 am UTC (link)

I had a Marine Biology professor who once showed us some photos taken of a leopard seal that attacked their boat when they were on a research trip. And they were in a teeny little almost canoe-sized boat at the time. And it just attacked for no real reason. D:

That professor had lots of lovely trauma-inducing photos to share with us that particular semester. Like of the time the seal-rehabilitation people met a great white shark.

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	benighted 2007-01-27 09:40 pm UTC (link)
	That professor had lots of lovely trauma-inducing photos to share with us that particular semester. Like of the time the seal-rehabilitation people met a great white shark. ... I apologize for this, but I seem incapable of communicating my response to this in words. Thus, an emoticon! o______o (Reply to this)(Parent)

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