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Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots

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RAHfanboy
01/07/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
What's the password?

Sawfish!
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RAHfanboy
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
A similar, growing business is recovering harvested lumber that "went down with the ship" in the Great Lakes. Much of it is a hundred or more years old, and is actually harder and more useful due to it's years in the cold, nearly oxygen free water.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
I wonder how many stories * will use the "underwater chainsaw" tag?

*not counting anime/manga, b/c for all I know, that's a whole damn genre there
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corpore-metal
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
But what happens if we decide to remove the dam or empty the reservoir? Do we plant the trees again? Do we change the acid balance in the newly exposed soil?
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tetracycloide
01/06/09

@corpore-metal: removing the water doesn't bring the trees back to life.
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corpore-metal
01/06/09

@tetracycloide: I'm well aware of that. I was really commenting that this is isn't as environmentally friendly as all that. All it really does is defers the tree loss until decades later when or if the reservoir is removed.

Sure, the trees are useless to us when buried underwater and perhaps even mildly toxic to fish that move into the dammed lake but, those dead logs still store carbon that won't be released by us. Probably better to just leave them there to rot naturally.
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tetracycloide
01/06/09

@corpore-metal: so your argument is that when the reservoir is removed new growth will loose the benefit of the already dead trees rotting after the preserving water has been removed? somehow i doubt the significance of this difference given that, if the reservoir is removed, there will likely be a lot of rotting aquatic life in the area already.
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Illogic
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
Meh, wake me up when they've got underwater lumberjacks with robotic cutting gloves.
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Belabras
01/06/09

@Illogic:

I'm A Robot Lumberjack and I'm OK?
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Grey_Area
01/06/09

@Belabras: Dang, beat me to it.
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Garrison Dean: R.O.A.C.H.
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots

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Liz Weinbloom
01/06/09

@Grrsn Dn: Hah. Also, this robot really looks like it should be called Saw-E.
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strider_mt2k
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
Man I'd love to get a gig as an ROV operator.
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BongoFury
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
I would've thought the environmentalists would scream about the destruction of fish habitats. But I'm not a regular at the Greenpeace meetings, so I don't know.
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phoenix
01/06/09

@BongoFury: Since I don't think you have a serious answer yet, the answer here is that while there will be some tradeoff for fish habitats, the reclaimed lumber worth harvesting will be large enough and in small enough quantities that we won't exactly be destroying habitats for it.

Additionally, there's a tradeoff to be had here - the amount of lumber that can be reclaimed here is pretty significant, and wouldn't require the decimation of land-bound habitats that unsustainable logging requires currently. It's really a much more environmentally friendly solution, and in many cases provides preserved, high quality wood in large volumes.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
I'd like to purchase two (2) underwater saw robot units please. I have some... debris in the lake nearby that I need to... dispose of.

I would be highly amused if the robots ran by burning wood.
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tetracycloide
01/06/09

In reply to Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots
i believe a similar technique is used to recover submerged timber from older logging operations that sank instead of floating down river. often the timber recovered belongs to now rare or even extinct species and fetches quite a price.
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