Fish v. Farms 11: The National Academy of Sciences weighs in

This Department of Fish and Game chart catalogues “Fall Midwater Trawl indices for striped bass (Morone saxatilis), delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus), longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys), American shad (Alosa sapidissima), splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus), and threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) from 1967-2009.”

Reproduced below in three parts are the sample populations of the famous Delta smelt, on the menu at San Joaquin Valley political fundraising barbecues and the agenda for countless rants, hearings, and Fox News and 60 Minutes hit pieces.

The trajectory of the population of these fish species is cause for despair. Delta smelt aren’t even the most endangered. Scrolling through the DFG charts is like witnessing a genocide.

The DNP is truly dispirited by the stark evidence that the state of California’s people are methodically eliminating several creatures from existence, and not at all sure that people can do anything about it. Californians should be concerned about their karmic future.

This, on the other hand, is something that people can do something about. The Endangered Species Act, signed into law by a Republican president, no less, includes this:

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (7 U.S.C. 136, 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq., ESA) is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. As stated in section 2 of the act, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a “consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.”

As On the Public Record notes, the National Academy of Sciences panel that gets underway tomorrow will have the power to continue to undermine this artifact of an era of less mean-spirited and greedy impulses.

OTPR, in (his or her) typically well-written and edgy style, elaborates on the ESA issues, pointing out the hypocrisy of big ag front groups like Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and the California Latino Water Coalition.

The DNP is pretty sure that there is no section of the ESA that says if rich landowners who have friends in the Senate whine enough, then the principle of protecting plants and animals from extinction no longer applies.

The DNP asks that the NAS panel, as they do their work, keep in mind the simple principle evoked in the ESA. They may also wish to recall the vision of America that Americans had almost 40 years ago.

One hopes that a speaker at one of the public forums also reminds the NAS panelists that their work involves deeply moral questions, not simply utilitarian ones.

Their best answer will be to make policy recommendations that reinforce the spirit and letter of ESA law.