NASA has released a Curiosity Rover photograph showing evidence of a Martian stream, but in the kind of selfishness reminiscent of your average fly fisherman, they’ve refused to acknowledge the possibility of Martian Trout:

NASA Curiosity Rover photograph

NASA Photo (with trout clearly Photoshopped out)

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence — images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels — is the first of its kind.

Scientists are studying the images of stones cemented into a layer of conglomerate rock. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream’s flow.

“From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep,” said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. “Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we’re actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it.”

How many fishermen populate NASA’s staff? I’m guessing at least a couple, as they seem to be engaging in the time-honored fishermen’s tradition of hiding their newly discovered fishing spots.

I, for one, am irritated by their unwillingness to share, especially given the taxpayer-funded nature of the expedition (my foreign readers, of course, can sod off).

I suggest a Freedom of Information Act filing — before this whole fiasco acquires the patina of NASA’s last great deception (moon landing, my ass).

See you on Mars, Tom Chandler.

Posted in Underground Entertainment.