Fish Versus People

[Sidestreamer]

Then you haven't checked out the endangered species act lately. For instance there exist a peculiar little fish that once shut down several construction projects in and around San Fancisco Bay because the environmental crowd decided they were an endangered species. Turns out they were half right. The little fishies are endangered when they are in San Francisco Bay. You see that isn't there natural habitat. The only time they ever enter the Bay is when a powerful storm blows them in they are normally open ocean residents where they exist in the millions but they are still listed as an endangered species.

So the question then is what kind of ecological purpose they serve in the bay? If they are common in the Pacific but rare in San Francisco Bay, I would think they still fit somewhere in the food chain there or they feed upon something, or do something that sustains the overall environment. Just looking at your post I can't pretend to know what that would be, I'm not an ecologist, but just because they are plentiful elsewhere doesn't mean they shouldn't be protected.

 

[garyd]

Again they only wind up in the bay by accident. They don't migrate there. They don't go there on purpose. They simply on occasion get blown in by storms. The most they might do is provide upon rare occassions a little extra food for the local sea creatures. This they would do regardless of any project that was done in the bay area short of walling it off and turning it into the worlds biggest aquarium.

Please note it is extraordinarily rare for a creature to ever be removed from the endangered species list once it is put there. Generally the best you can hope for is a reduction from endangered to threatened reagardless of the numbers.

 

[nodoginnafight]

Then you haven't checked out the endangered species act lately. For instance there exist a peculiar little fish that once shut down several construction projects in and around San Fancisco Bay because the environmental crowd decided they were an endangered species.

We had a similar situation in my region when concerns over a fish called a snail-darter shut down construction of some power plants. It's probably an important distinction that the snail-darters WERE native to the waters.

But my humble opinion is that mankind didn't spend thousands of years clawing our way to the top of the food chain, only to give away that position now.

I understand how ecosystems must have balance and need to be protected. I just think we go overboard sometimes in an attempt to thwart the natural selection process.