In the state of Main, a law was passed in 2008 that made the passage of a native fish, the river herring, to the area, illegal past the Great Falls Dam due to the Clean Water Act. This fish comes from the ocean and travels upstream where they then span for the spring. A main question I had was, why would you block off a native species from entering its native grounds? The answer came from those who are sport fishermen. It was believed by them that "native fish hurt non-native, bass fisheries." Though this logic is rather ridiculous, the law was set into place since fishing brings a lot of tourist to Main. However, a lawyer on the case stated that the Clean Water Act "does not allow a state to arbitrarily exclude native species from their essential habitat."
One might ask why it is such a big deal that these fish remain in its native waters. For starters, theses fish are incredibly important to the ecosystem of the Main coast. They serve as food for certain fish and birds, which have gone without these fish for 4 years now. For economical reasons, these fish " are fished for by commercial and recreational fishermen, and are valuable to fisherman and related coastal economies as bait for lobster and recreational fishermen, and as forage for commercially valuable species like cod, halibut, and tuna." To learn more about the passing of the law and about these important fish to the Main ecosystem, visit http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2012/epa-finds-maine-river-herring-exclusion-law-is-illegal.
I had no idea that there was a way to prevent fish from moving from one body of water to the next, let alone a law being passed to prevent them from doing so. It interests me to see how some environmental laws can be re-examined by lawmakers in order to ensure their validity and effectiveness. This reminds me of the dwindling of the salmon population that both the Elwah River documentary and Evison's "West of Here" address. It would be a shame to see this native Maine fish species become extinct because the local residents wished to repurpose the water for solely bass fishing.
ReplyDelete