Save A Salmon Kill A Seal

                The Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River presents a huge issue in the ethical decisions that must be made in dealing of Wildlife Management/ Damage Management.  After the dam was built scientist and scene seekers noticed that this dam was causing a degradation of spawning environments on the river where the salmonid were annually travelling for breeding.   After noticing how the numbers of salmonids were declining after the dam installation Wildlife Managers bean to look for answers in what to do to solve the problem.  Well a man named Gary Locke decided that it would be best to eliminate the Sea lions that have been feeding on these fish in order to save the endangered fish.  Some people disagreed with his actions a great bit and so do I.(States, 2012)

                In my eyes he should have done a great bit more research before making the move to just eliminate the Sea Lions which are also a protected species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.  If I were to have to put any kind of name on the actions he made I would have to say he acted in an “unethical” way.  He eliminated Sea lions that accounted for a mere 5% of the fishes death compared to the millions of fry and juvenile salmonids that are eliminated due to predation from “game” fish such as Walleye and non-native bass.(Humane, 2012)  These game fish were added to the water because they bring in money for the government from recreation fishermen that will travel long distances for some good fishing.  Gary Locke did what he thought was best financially and tried to keep the fishing community happy.  Another step I believe that should have been taken is to do further research into the local hatcheries and maybe trying to mass produce salmon and release them into the wild rather than kill Sea Lions.  In the end ethics will always be in question due that one species has to be “sacrificed” in order to manage for another.  If I were in charge I believe I would have eliminated the nonnative fish in order to save the native species and create a more sustainable breeding ground for these salmonids.  I also believe this could have been the cheapest way to go about doing this just by using electroshocking methods and lethally taking all non- native breeders that use the same breeding grounds as the Salmonids.  Some people may still say this is still unethical and that nature should just take place but I have been taught that it is best to keep an environment rid of all nonnative species in or to be the most sustainable for biodiversity.(Humane, 2012)

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/fisheries/timelines/bonneville_dam_sea_lions_under_siege.html

Exploitation Never Pays Off

In this article a small town in New York goes threw hard economic times and is reduced to a fifth of its original population due to job loss.  One thing this town is not going through a shortness in is natural resources.  This town is called Tupper Lake, New York.  It is said that it has trout filled streams,  forested mountains, crystalline lakes, and clean air, but now a huge devlopment is about to take place.  The project, the Adirondack Club and Resort, calls for more than 650 units of housing, a hotel, a ski area, a marina and an equestrian center. It is the largest development the agency has ever approved by the Adiirondack Park Agency.  I and surely some of you as well have come from a small town such as this one.  I apreciate the untouched nature that these small towns have and beleive that they should be left alone for other generations to enjoy.  I believe that after this development takes place the resources will become exploited and ruin the wildlife habitat in the area for good.  This resort will supply the area and its citizens with a variety of jobs but one has to assume that once the area gets back to normal population and the resort grows that the forested mountains and clear lakes that once were will become bombarded with new development.  This resort could be a plus for both the people and environmentalist only if they stick with their original plan of only desturbing 145 acres while spending some of the resorts profits to managing the 4,700 acres agreed to be left alone by the developers.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/nyregion/in-struggling-tupper-lake-resort-project-creates-rift.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=science

Cats are not wildlife management safe

The writer of this article must not have ever seen how fast cats reproduce and how many rare birds cats tend to lower number in the wild due to their "ability to survive" and "adaptable hunting abilities".  Cats are not a good source of pest management due to the fact that one will never be able to control the actions of a cat or otherwise select which organism that they kill.  Cats in high numbers can cause mass deaths of songbirds and other easy prey items such as shrews and small mammals.




http://news.yahoo.com/cats-world-suddenly-died-145802016.html