Sunday, July 22, 2012

Saquatch - not enough science being done?

TV show criticized

Brian Regal has a bone to pick with sasquatch hunters, especially those on Finding Bigfoot.  He complains the show and others like it elevate the amateur over the professional sceintist and the sensational over the provable. 
He has a point, though his criticism of amateurs is overly harsh.  If you follow news of new species discoveries, a lot of them still come in from amateur insect-hunters and herpetology hobbyists and the like. Just like "professor" does not automatically mean "ivory-tower irrelevant academic," "amateur" does not mean "scientifically useless." Ask the asteroid/comet hunters.
There's no reason a show on cryptozoology can't include rigorous science front and center, though, and Regal - who does not totally dismiss sasquatch - is right in saying that not nearly enough of them do. 

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