FINALLY!!!

this is great news, I read in another article sealers only took 60,000 baby seals this year out the 300,000+ quota that was allowed, many of them stayed home because of the pending ban and pelts going for only $14.00 apiece.

http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Parliament+...4814/story.html

"Natural" seasonal seal harvest.
How long before that's banned? That's the goal, isn't it?

It just mystifies me what could possibly possess people to be so arrogantly intolerant.

The only explanation that comes to mind is that people are generally assholes.

This is so distressing.


It's about fucking time. When will you guys learn that compassion aka feelings for animals does not equate to people being assholes.


Question for you, RF, if this just came about on its own (e.g., people stopped buying seal products because they involve clubbing and shooting seal pups, then skinning them on the ice) would you still think same people were assholes?

They might still be assholes, but not because they chose not to buy something they didn't want.

Why would you even ask me that?

Generally those who are cheering this incredibly stupid move by the EU are ignorant of the subject and instead believe propaganda put out by ARs.

A society that caters to animal rights idiocy is not one that is moving forward, it is one that is moving backwards.

Well maybe I misunderstood. Who were you claiming to be assholes?

Basically assholes are clueless idiots who decide they don't like a particular activity based on nothing but their misguided emotional reactions to it. They congregate with other assholes and force their opinions down the throats of everyone else. Kinda like the idiots who shut down the irrigation pumps in california to save an "endangered" smelt fish. Put an estimated 60,000 people out of work. One county has 40% unemployment because of it. This irrigation system has been in operation since 1968. NOW the smelt might be getting killed in the pumps. A 2" long fish is more important than the third generation farms and everyone they employee.
People who choose to purchase or not purchase a product are consumers.

Steve


Maybe if the smelt died off it would be an ecologicial disaster in the long run. I don't believe these decisions are arbitrary and based on emotions. It's not PETA rallying for these fish because they're cute and have rights.

Excerpt from article below:


Water from the Delta supports about $400 billion dollars of the state’s $1.5 trillion dollar economy. The watershed of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary provides a portion of the drinking water to 25 million people in the Bay Area, Central Valley, and Southern California and water to over 3.7 million acres of irrigated farmland.

For years, lawmakers and California governors have sought a permanent solution that could protect the Delta ecosystem and also provide reliable water transfers to downstream water users.

Governor Arnold Swarzenegger has established a Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, which has until the end of the year to develop a strategic plan.

In addition, in February, the governor directed the California Department of Water Resources to begin environmental reviews on at least four alternatives for a canal that would allow water to be sent to downstream users by circumventing the Delta. Those include a two-part system with a canal and pumps, a stand-alone canal, and improvements to the existing pumps, or no new Delta transfer system.

The studies could take two years and cost more than $100 million that would be paid for by water users under existing contracts.




California's Delta Smelt Could Merit Endangered Listing
SACRAMENTO, California, July 11, 2008 (ENS) - The delta smelt, a small silvery fish that has come to represent the condition of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary, may be declared an endangered species under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service action announced Wednesday.

The federal agency made a positive preliminary finding on a petition by three environmental groups to reclassify the smelt from "threatened" to "endangered." The agency said the petition "contains substantial information that current threats to the delta smelt may be greater than in 1993," when the fish was classified as threatened.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which, along with The Bay Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council, petitioned for the reclassification in 2006, noted that the finding by the service was more than two years late.

"We are seeing a cascading series of crashing Delta fish populations - delta smelt, longfin smelt, chinook salmon, steelhead trout, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail, striped bass - the warning bells are ringing loud and clear," Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement.

"The ecological collapse of the Delta threatens more than just our native fish since millions of people depend on the Delta for drinking water, agriculture, and fishing," he said.


Delta smelt (Photo courtesy Assn. of Fish and Wildlife Agencies)
Delta smelt used to be common in the Northern California estuary that forms a nexus between freshwater mountain runoff and saltwater from San Francisco Bay. The smelt population declined sharply in 1982 and stayed low for the rest of the decade, leading to the species' listing as threatened in 1993.

From 1992 to 2001, the numbers rebounded somewhat, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but dropped to record lows from 2002 through 2007.

The service cited a 2005 study that found a 55 percent chance that smelt would reach a "point of no return" - or virtual extinction - within 20 years.

A small fish the length of a finger, smelt are found only in the Delta. They are considered environmentally sensitive because they live mainly in the intersection between salt and freshwater, live only one year and have a limited diet, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is collecting comments on the prospective reclassification through September 8.

The agency noted that reclassification would have no practical effect: "An uplisting from threatened to endangered would result in virtually no change in our approach or actions we could take to assist the species because under the ESA [Endangered Species Act], there are few differences in treatment of species between the two categories."

In a separate action, the Fish and Wildlife Service is under federal court order to revise a "biological opinion" it issued in 2005 that in effect allows delta smelt to be killed at two major water export pumping stations at the southern end of the Delta.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the federally owned Central Valley Project, and the California Department of Water Resources, which runs the State Water Project, used the wildlife's agency's opinion as justification to increase delta water exports and to renew 25 and 40 year contracts to irrigation districts and urban water agencies.

The new biological opinion is due by September 15.

Delta smelt are particularly vulnerable during winter and spring, when pre-spawning and spawning adults move into the delta for reproduction, and larvae and juveniles move downstream to rearing habitat.

In December 2007, Judge Oliver Wanger of the U.S. District Court in Fresno wrote, "The Delta smelt is undisputedly in jeopardy as to its survival and recovery. He ordered that enough water to ensure smelt survival must be held in the Delta and not pumped to downstream cities, towns and farms.

Water from the Delta supports about $400 billion dollars of the state’s $1.5 trillion dollar economy. The watershed of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary provides a portion of the drinking water to 25 million people in the Bay Area, Central Valley, and Southern California and water to over 3.7 million acres of irrigated farmland.

For years, lawmakers and California governors have sought a permanent solution that could protect the Delta ecosystem and also provide reliable water transfers to downstream water users.

Governor Arnold Swarzenegger has established a Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, which has until the end of the year to develop a strategic plan.

In addition, in February, the governor directed the California Department of Water Resources to begin environmental reviews on at least four alternatives for a canal that would allow water to be sent to downstream users by circumventing the Delta. Those include a two-part system with a canal and pumps, a stand-alone canal, and improvements to the existing pumps, or no new Delta transfer system.

The studies could take two years and cost more than $100 million that would be paid for by water users under existing contracts.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008/2008-07-11-091.asp

Here's some bureacratic assholes.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933368/posts

And let's back up here a bit. Who did the damage to the fisheries, including smelt, in the first place? The water pumping stations. And it's not emotional hand wringing AR assholes behind saving the fish (and not only the smelt), it's the same people who promote hunting, recreational/sport and commercial fishing. Conservationists are rallying for this cause so there will be fish to fish.



Yesterday the California Senate failed to pass AB 1806, the landmark bill by Assemblymember Lois Wolk (D-Davis) that would have required the state and federal Delta export pumping operations to fully mitigate for the damage they have caused to fisheries. The bill would have required fish rescue contingency plans in the event of future fishery disasters like the one that took place at Prospect Island in the northern Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in November 2007. During last year's fish kill, thousands of striped bass, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, black bass, bluegill, catfish, threadfin shad and other species perished after the Bureau of Reclamation drained the island during a levee repair operation.

"Unfortunately, they just lifted the call and AB 1806 failed passage on a vote of 18-21," said Diane Colborn, Staff Director for the Water Parks and Wildlife Committee. "Reconsideration was granted, but it does not look like we will be able to get the votes to get the bill off the Senate floor."

Senator Florez also switched his vote from aye to no which brought it down to 18 votes. "We tried to lobby the members to get the last few votes, but unfortunately the fact that the bill went on call gave the opposition more time to lobby members to move into the no column," said Colborn.

John Beuttler, Conservation Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), expressed disgust when he heard the final vote. Beuttler stated, "This bill was to be the beginning of the delta fishery restoration process and would have provided funds for the state's impacted salmon fishery. Its defeat is a slap in the face to California's commercial and recreational anglers."

Beuttler worked with Wolk's office in the drafting of the bill and its introduction in the State Assembly. Once introduced, CSPA mounted a letter campaign at each stage of the bill's progress, in the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, on the Assembly floor, at the Senate's Natural Resources & Wildlife Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee. Beuttler of CSPA and other fisheries representatives testified at many of the committee hearings.

Richard Pool, owner of Pro-Troll and organizer of the Water 4 Fish campaign, was disappointed by the bill's defeat because it would have been a major step forward in the restoration of Central Valley salmon and steelhead and California Delta striped bass, delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, green sturgeon, white sturgeon, steelhead and other species.

"We were counting on this bill as a funding mechanism for hundreds of projects needed to recover salmon," said Pool. "In spite of our successful efforts to move the bill through the Assembly and two Senate Committees, in the end we were outgunned by the intense lobbying of the water contractors and the administration. The bill is dead for this year."

On a positive note, Pool said, "Do we give up? Absolutely not. We come back next year better organized and with all the additional grassroots firepower we can muster. We won’t give up until we get the funding for mitigation and fish recovery.If you are as mad as we are, take the action that will help the most - get everyone you know to sign onto Water4Fish.org. Click and send letters to the politicians and give us the powerful proxy ammunition we can use."

The passage of this bill was particularly urgent in light of the closure of commercial and recreational salmon fishing in ocean waters off California and Oregon and recreational salmon fishing in Central Valley rivers this year, spurred by the collapse of Sacramento River fall chinook salmon populations. Although the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations blame "ocean conditions" for the collapse, a coalition of fishing groups, Indian Tribes and conservationists points to huge increases in water exports and a decline in water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta as the major causes of the dramatic fishery decline.

While Central Valley salmon populations are in a state of collapse, four Delta pelagic (open water) fish species - delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad - have declined to their lowest record population levels. A team of state and federal scientists have pinpointed three major factors behind the decline: (1) increases in Delta water exports in recent years, (2) toxics and (3) invasive species. More recently, two scientific reports concluded that releases of high concentrations of ammonia in treated sewage water by the city of Sacramento may also be contributing to the decline.

The legislation was supported by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers, the California Striped Bass Association, the Recreational Fishing Alliance, the Allied Fishing Groups, the American Sportfishing Association, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and many regional fishing organizations. The Planning and Conservation League, the National Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups are also backing the bill.

The bill was opposed by a who’s who of corporate agriculture, including the Westlands Water District, Friant Water Authority, Kern County Water Agency, State Water Contractors, Inc. and the Valley Ag Coalition. The Alameda County Water District, Association of California Water Agencies, Santa Clara Valley Water District and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California also opposed the bill. The fishing and environmental groups did a great job of pounding the legislature with letter and phone calls in support of AB 1806. However, the Senators who voted against the bill apparently considered the power of big money to be more important than huge grassroots support for the measure by a broad coalition of organizations.

“The death of tens of thousands of fish, including striped bass and other sportfish, could have been prevented with some basic planning," said Lois Wolk, after AB 1806 passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee intact without amendments on Thursday, August 7. "This bill is a strong first step towards preventing further losses to our state’s fisheries."

Unfortunately, the majority of the Senate apparently believes that mitigation for the millions of salmon, steelhead, delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, striped bass killed by the operation of the Delta pumps every year is not needed. Shame on all of the Republicans and on the agribusiness-controlled Democrats like Florez that voted against the bill!

For more information, go to http://www.calsport.org or http://www.water4fish.org.


http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/08/14/18526288.php

How good do those smelt taste, anyway?

I smelt them once and they were sort of fishy.

But be such a crab, Grace and clam up.