Havboka

2 ideas

1. Greenland shark: slow, ancient, and toxic

   The Greenland shark lives in cold, dark water and moves extremely slowly. Its metabolism is so slow that individuals may live for several centuries. Its flesh is loaded with trimethylamine oxide, which protects its tissues against deep-sea pressure, and eaten fresh it causes 'shark drunkenness' in dogs and people. That is why it must be fermented or rotted, as in Icelandic hákarl, before anyone can eat it.

2. The sea as humanity's unknown origin

   Look at land life, including humans, as a recent and marginal offshoot of the ocean, which holds most of Earth's life, history and unexplored space. Seen this way, the sea surface is a thin boundary over a world that is older, stranger and less mapped than outer space. It stops looking like scenery or a resource and becomes the place humanity came from, which it barely understands.

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