kjackson

To use a familiar phrase, "It ain't over till it's over"

I just re-read the original article cited in this thread:


Federal officials said Wednesday that the new policy on hatchery salmon -- to be published in June in the Federal Register and then be opened to public comment -- was in response to a 2001 federal court ruling in Oregon. In that ruling, U.S. District Judge Michael R. Hogan found that the federal government made a mistake by counting only wild fish -- and not genetically similar hatchery fish -- when it listed coastal coho salmon for protection.

To the dismay of many environmental groups, the federal government chose not to appeal that ruling, though it seemed counter to the reasoning behind the spending of more than $2 billion in the past 15 years to protect stream-bred wild salmon.

It is ironic that NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency charged with wild salmon recovery, could sit idly by, and worse yet, actually agree that Hogan was right. The Hogan ruling may have gone unchallenged by NOAA Fisheries, but I am confident that NOAA Fisheries will not go unchalleged by prominent conservation groups, scientists, and the angling community at large.

The proposed rule will be published in the next month with a 90-day public comment period to follow. I hope to see an avalanche of unified condemnation at that point. We need to be heard loud and clear!