- In the lower reaches of the Hamma Hamma river, just a
few miles from the vast Pacific, one of the world's great natural phenomena
is unfolding. From a distance it looks as if the shallow waters are choked
with logs. But on closer inspection it becomes clear the river is brimming
with 35lb salmon.
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- Local Indian tribes like to say that in the autumn their
forefathers walked across rivers on the backs of dead and dying salmon.
Last week that almost seemed possible on the Hamma Hamma (Stink Stink,
in the local tongue) as the fish, each about 3ft long, "ran"
in from the sea to spawn and die.
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- It was an astonishing scene and a testament to the
perseverance
of a local environmental organisation, Long Live the Kings. Named after
the chinook or king salmon, the largest of the five North American Pacific
species, it is helping wild salmon back from the brink of extinction after
more than a century of devastation of their habitat by man.
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- Many of the salmon in the 3in waters originated in a
hatchery run by the group before being released to spend most of their
lives in the sea. As Rick Endicott walked along the bank with a rod to
catch a brooding pair, he said the recovery plan had a long way to go but
that it was a good start. "Your choice is the status quo or start
taking steps. Nobody wants to see the fish all gone. That's for
sure."
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- To a casual observer the scene was an uplifting sign
that 14 years after they were listed as an endangered species the wild
salmon of the North West are on the road to recovery.
-
- But environmentalists argue that this is just what the
Bush administration wants people to think. Amid outrage across Washington
state, where the fish is a symbol of identity, the authorities are
proposing
to count hatchery-bred salmon when deciding whether the species still
deserve
protection.
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- To many environmentalists the idea of treating salmon
raised in concrete pens as the same as wild salmon is not only an abuse
of science but also the latest case of the administration tailoring its
policies to suit big business. The timber and power-generating industries
have long chafed at their obligations under the endangered species act
to restore the habitat for salmon runs.
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- "It's somewhere between cynicism, vested interest
and ideology," said Denis Hayes, a leading environmentalist. He
founded
Earth Day in 1970 and during Jimmy Carter's presidency led national
research
into solar energy. "If what you are saying is, 'As long as we can
produce this species in a hatchery then it's ridiculous to call it
endangered,
because we've got it here' that's like saying, 'We've got hundreds of
tigers
in zoos so how can you say tigers are endangered?' "
-
- Mr Hayes has experience of Republican presidents. He
was fired as the head of the solar energy institute by Ronald Reagan, but
he regards Mr Bush as "far worse". He sees the row over salmon
as the latest instance in a pattern of the administration's use of
"minor
rule-makings to have fairly sweeping consequences".
-
- Over the past four years the Bush administration has
argued that environmental concerns have to take a distant second in
priority
to business. Last month it emerged that passages in a proposal to regulate
mercury pollution mirror parts of memos written by a law firm representing
coal-fired power plants. Local conviction that this was a factor in the
salmon rethink was fuelled when it emerged that Mark Rutzick, one of the
administration's advisers on the policy, once had close ties to the logging
industry.
-
- Three years ago he suggested to timber firms that by
counting hatchery fish with wild stocks the authorities would be able to
assist them by getting salmon declassified. The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric
Administration, the government agency responsible for the ruling, argues
that it has been misinterpreted. Hatchery fish would be used to
"rebuild"
wild stocks but would not be considered equally.
-
- In a mark of the simmering passions, 30 experts and
activists
forsook watching the vice-presidential debate, on Tuesday night and
gathered
instead in a dingy hotel room for a public hearing. Scott Rumsey, an NOAA
oceanographer, accepted that the ruling was in parts vague and poorly
written.
But, he said, the motive was "pretty simple and non-political"
and was merely an adjustment of policy to take into account a 2001 court
ruling.
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- "We have gotten a lot of emails that say this policy
is a political ploy to reverse endangered species act protections. I
understand
the concern but that is not what the policy says."
-
- He added that Mr Rutzick had played a role in shaping
the policy but as a natural part of "inter-agency" procedures,
not as the "conspiracy theories" suggest.
-
- Barbara Cairns, the head of Long Live the Kings, regrets
the impasse. "Who wouldn't like a Lewis and Clark [the explorers who
charted the region] vision of rivers choked with salmon? But that would
mean getting rid of Seattle.
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- "We have to do what is possible instead of fighting.
But the Bush administration has made so many controversial appointments
that most environmentalists find offensive that they just don't trust
him."
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- Ramon Vanden Brulle, of Washington Trout, an
environmental
pressure group, is not convinced.
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- "The authorities' response is to say, 'Trust us'.
It is smoke and mirrors. This year the administration wanted to
characterise
working at McDonald's as a manufacturing job.
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- "You have an administration that could confuse
working
on a minimum wage as a manufacturing job. So why not confuse hatchery
salmon
with wild salmon?"
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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