By some measure

[keannu]

What does this "By some measure" mean?

gu124)In recent years, there's been a sharp decline in honeybee numbers. By some measure the wild population has nearly disappeared, and if honeybees were to become extinct, we would be in trouble...

[Gillnetter]

What does this "By some measure" mean?

gu124)In recent years, there's been a sharp decline in honeybee numbers. By some measure the wild population has nearly disappeared, and if honeybees were to become extinct, we would be in trouble...

I would say that this statement is not true, given the number of bees in my neighborhood, but others, those who actually count bees, may have evidence that the number of bees are declining. They measure, or estimate, the number of bees one way (some measure) and I estimate (or measure) the number of bees another way. I can measure the distance from my house to the lake as being less than a mile. Others can measure this distance in kilometers - by some measure the distance is one kilometer, by another measure the distance is about 3,280 feet.

[emsr2d2]

Sadly, in the UK, the decline is very real.

[BobK]

(And there's just a typo, keannu: 'By some measures...'. 'By some <expression-of-distance>...' is possible (with a different meaning) in some cases, for example 'She beat him by some distance' - which means 'by quite a significant distance'. But with 'measure' the singular doesn't work.

b