'Free Willy' expensive to farmers and developers

The Farm Bureau and Building Industry Association are suing to remove Puget Sound Orcas (the 'Free Willy' type whale) from the endangered species list.  To understand why, follow the food chain.  The Endangered Species Act prohibits anyone from messing with listed species' habitats.  If farmers or developers do anything near a river that might harm salmon--the fish that Orcas like to eat--then the offending farmer or developer would be subject to fines and penalties under the ESA.

Here's more:

Farming and industry groups in Washington state sued to remove Puget Sound's several dozen killer whales from the endangered species list, saying the designation will result in unnecessary water and land-use restrictions.

The listing, issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service in November, will result in "needless" restrictions on the state's farms, especially those near rivers inhabited by salmon - the orcas' prime food source - the groups wrote in the federal lawsuit filed Monday.

"Farmers could face fines and even imprisonment for the most basic farm practices should such actions allegedly disturb salmon," the lawsuit reads.

Sarcastic Sidebar: 

Allow me to play devil's advocate for a minute.  Suppose--and I'm speaking purely hypothetically here--there were government legislation--oh, for the sake of argument let's call this legislation 'The Farm Bill'--that subsidized crop production in watersheds that feed into rivers that are home to salmon.  Wouldn't that make the hypothetical 'Farm Bill' illegal under the ESA?  Just wondering.

Back to the story:

So how do farmers and developers plan to get around the problem?  Well that's easy...they argue that sub-species can not be listed separately under the ESA.   

Lawyers for the Farm Bureau and the Building Industry Association argue that those orcas do not meet the technical requirements for protection under the Endangered Species Act because they are not a "distinct population" of the species.

While the entire subspecies known as "Northern Pacific resident orcas" could be listed as endangered, they argue, the Puget Sound pods alone may not. The subspecies also includes orcas off Alaska and Russia.

Comments

[Dano]

This is also a shot across the bow to a local land-use initiative that the Farm Bureau is collecting signatures on for inclusion on the Fall ballot, à la Oregon's M37.

Agitatin' the base, so to speak, as the two are related, IMHO.

What would be easier and cheaper for the farmers is to have some hedgerows around their property. The Gov. just passed legislation to let them expand uses on their land - what's next? Subdivisions on the alfalfa?

Best,

D

[Mary Ellen]

This controversey brings home the same issue that so-called environmentalist refuse to address-that consuming meat of any kind (including fish) is detrimental to total environment so I wonder why are environmentalists going to WAKE UP?????????
Very few of these environmental reporting agencies ever address the issue of degradation of the environment and it's relation to meat consumption - of any kind.

[joshua corning]

Very few of these environmental reporting agencies ever address the issue of degradation of the environment and it's relation to meat consumption - of any kind.

follow the money mary...tribes and fishing industry are huge contributors to the enviornmental lobbies....of course if someone owned the fish and the water this would all be figured out in the market with externalities given better consideration.

Anyway I don't like fish they taste fishy...but I will continue to eat meat. My eyes point forward i have sharp canines and my brain is able to track objects through three dimentianal space...you don't beat your cat for killing a mouse do you?

[joshua corning]

This is also a shot across the bow to a local land-use initiative that the Farm Bureau is collecting signatures on for inclusion on the Fall ballot, à la Oregon's M37.

Agitatin' the base, so to speak, as the two are related, IMHO.

What would be easier and cheaper for the farmers is to have some hedgerows around their property. The Gov. just passed legislation to let them expand uses on their land - what's next? Subdivisions on the alfalfa?

join the dark side dano...the property rights crowd is not going away why not join us before the croney capitalists f$%k it up.

By the way housing dvelopments use less water then alfalfa...and should never be grown in eastern washington anyway...if markets were free this wouldn't happen.

[Funkie]

Hi ! Your site is very interesting. Thank you.

[remco]

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[iris]

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