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Fish and Other Marine Life
Endangered and Extinct Species
National Marine Fisheries Service
ne of the great virtues of the Endangered Species Act — and the main reason for the bitter opposition the act has engendered over the years — is that in the interests of saving species, it requires the protection of the habitats where the species live. That usually means constraining human behavior in ways that help preserve a healthier environment all around. Humans themselves often come to appreciate that intervention, though not always. In the case of wild salmon, for instance, commercial interests have long resented the restrictions on logging, farming and development necessary to protect the fragile watersheds where salmon spawn.
The Bush administration has now found a novel way around these inconveniences: a new policy on counting fish. Its practical effect would be to eliminate the distinction between wild salmon and hatchery salmon, which can be churned out by the millions. This sleight of hand would instantly make wild salmon populations look healthier than they actually are, giving the government a green light to lift legal protections for more than two dozen endangered salmon species as well as the restrictions on commerce that developers and other members of President Bush's constituency find so annoying.
Policy makers at the National Marine Fisheries Service say they are merely obeying a federal judge who was unhappy with the way the government distinguished between wild and hatchery fish. But in drawing up the new policy, the service ignored the scientists who urged that the protections remain in place. It relied instead on a Washington-based political team whose key player was Mark Rutzick, a former timber industry lawyer.
Such a step may be good politics for the Bush administration. But it is bad science and bad news for wild salmon. Hatchery-raised fish represent a narrowing of the genetic diversity present in wild runs of salmon, and are makeshift at best. Few scientists believe that hatchery-raised fish can make a serious and lasting contribution to protecting wild salmon runs, which have been crashing under the pressures created by habitat destruction in the coastal streams where they breed. Indeed, this new policy has nothing to do with protecting salmon. Its only purpose is to circumvent the Endangered Species Act, without whose protections the wild runs will almost surely vanish.
is this really of earth shatering importance? probably not.
in the early 1800's, the number of passenger pigeons was estimated at 3 to 5 billion. someone noted the skys were dark for three days as a flock of birds flew overhead. on September 1, 1914, at 1:00 in the afternoon, Martha, the last passenger pigeon died at the age of 29. the only specific date and time of a species becoming extinct.
again, are the salmon so important to the survival of the species, homo sapiens. probably not. as long as lox can be made from hatchery breed salmon.
the only point to this is to point out the indidious intrusion into the minutia of our lives that the federal government has stuck it's slithering head.
