[Coral-List] Regarding Mike Risk's comment
Gene Shinn
eshinn at marine.usf.edu
Fri May 19 12:33:16 EDT 2006
Dear Jim, I was especially up set about unlisting Mike Risk
especially since he was responding to the polar bear article I posted
on the list. Mike is one of my special buddies so I hated to see it
happen. We can all depend on Mike to give us an honest and accurate
appraisal of coral issues. I do understand the fish bowl in which you
operate while at the same time know, as you do, that that is one of
the most common words in the English language. But I do understand
that you do what you have to do as a government agency. Ironically
others responded to my posting and provided abundant information
about polar bears. I suppose they missed the point I was making which
was about how different government agencies respond differently to
petitions from the same outside pressure groups.
As most readers of the coral list know I questioned the need and
motives of listing Acropora in an article I published in a 2004 issue
of the Marine Pollution Bulletin. My point was and still is that no
one really knows the cause of Acropora demise, (along with many other
coral species), and therefore no one knows what to protect it from.
It was interesting to read that the Biological Review Team (BRT) who
did an excellent review of Acropora did not in fact suggest that it
be listed. They only concluded that it was threatened, something we
have known for over 20 years. Hurricanes and possibly warming still
head the list of threats to Acropora species.
After reading how Fish and Wild life (Dept of Interior) rejected
polar bear listing I became a little confused. In the 1970s there was
a move to list Pillar coral. As I recall it was Fish and Wild life
that was in charge of the Endangered Species Act and they rejected
listing that coral. Can anyone enlighten me when and how NOAA (Dept
of Commerce) took authority to list corals? (Please choose your words
carefully). Gene
--
No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
Marine Science Center (room 204)
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158----------------------------------
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