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http://www.dhonline.com:80/articles/2007/07/20/news/opinion/3edit01_science.txt
‘Science’ again trumps sense
Albany Democrat-Herald 7/20/07
In the case of Oregon
coastal coho salmon, we’ve had another case of judicial
interference with good sense and the political process on the
grounds of, supposedly, “science” as required by the
Endangered Species Act.
A federal magistrate in Portland has recommended that the
Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds be disregarded and that
the National Marine Fisheries Services be required to list the
coho as threatened or endangered. The magistrate, Janice
Stewart, made her decision in a lawsuit by several fishing
interests, and it’s now up to a higher federal judge to
approve or disapprove her recommendation.
It was during the
administration of Gov. John Kitzhaber that this issue last
came up and was settled. Kitzhaber and others worked out a
state plan to protect and restore stream habitats to allow
fish runs to recover and thrive over time.
The plan relied to a
large extent on voluntary efforts and on the cooperation of
state and federal land agencies and property owners, and
because of that it was necessarily vague.
All this was too unscientific for the ESA, at least in the
eyes of these plaintiffs and the judge they managed to
persuade. But it did have certain things going for it, among
them common sense, an indefinite time frame to make it work,
practical changes in the operation of state hatcheries, and
the hope that Oregon could take care of this issue without the
heavy hand of the federal government getting involved.
Science? As the Portland Oregonian pointed out in an editorial
Wednesday, federal management of fish runs has been waist-deep
in science for years, and how has that worked?
Most of this is the fault of Congress, which has refused to
adapt the 1973 Endangered Species Act to the modern era, when
judges are allowed to make political decisions that affect the
natural world, and some are perfectly willing to do so, using
science as their Bible.
In a society that claims to be democratic, the findings of
science must always be used to inform the making of decisions,
but science should never be allowed to make the decisions
themselves. It is politics — the tedious process of debate,
discussion, elections, and decisions by leaders keeping in
mind the public interest as they understand it— on which we
rely to regulate our lives and still remain reasonably free. (hh)
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One of the comments
following above article on Albany Democrat-Herald
LibDem
wrote on Jul
20, 2007 1:49 PM:
" HH, I also think "they" made a bad
ruling. I don't think all the data and
information was made available. In my
experience, I've seen a steady upswing in
Coho numbers for the past few years, and
it's been the direct result of coordinated
(not pure scientific) Oregon efforts.
(volunteer stream enhancement projects,
hatchboxes, etc.) Last week off
Charleston, I caught and released over 50
fat ones. Commercially, we are not allowed
to keep them until Aug 15. We have been
allocated a quota of 10,000 fish, 50 per
week, per boat. The season ends on Aug 31.
The reopening from Sep 10 to the 13th
could still have Coho, depending on the
catch numbers. Or.....it could end quickly
for the same reason. This is the first
Coho season for commercial boats in many,
many years. The sports guys are having a
ball. Nearly every one limited quickly. It
was a kick to watch them "skip" by me and
my 10 knot chug, smiling and waving,
speeding to and from. Some caught Tuna, in
as close as 15 miles, and then loaded up
on Coho in fhe afternoon. To me, this
upswing validates the Oregon point of
view, and brings into question the federal
one. The CROOS DNA sampling program we are
doing with Chinook could be used here. We
clip an adipose, take 8 or 10 scales from
midfish, measure, log in Lon/Lat/depth,
and send em to OSU for analysis. Within 48
hours the stream of origin, age,
viability, etc. can be pinpointed. This is
our new way to keep "them" from closing
the entire coast due to low Klamath
counts, but I think it could also work for
Coho. The more data made available about
where they were hatched, and which methods
have yielded the best returns could help
cure the federal myopia. I am hoping for a
reversal, and will try and be a part of
the efforts in getting one. "
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