Expert to Obama: You don’t understand salmon

[alp227]

Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post

Note to President Obama and his staff: Learn a bit of fish biology before mocking the federal government for how it handles salmon.

As the White House unveiled its new government reorganization plan with much fanfare Friday, Obama couldn’t help mentioning that in moving the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from Commerce to the Interior Department, he was putting all salmon issues under one roof.

Obama referred to what he said was his “favorite example” of government duplication, mentioned in his most recent State of the Union address. “As it turns out, the Interior Department is in charge of salmon in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in saltwater. Apparently, this all had something to do with President Nixon being unhappy with his Interior secretary for criticizing the Vietnam War.”

(...)

The problem with his critique is that there are not separate fresh water and saltwater salmon. Salmon spend part of their lives in fresh water and part in the sea, which is why federal jurisdiction is divided.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/expert-to-obama-you-dont-understand-salmon/2012/01/13/gIQAnHrswP_story.html

[Bolo Boffin]

1. The problem with Eilperin's critique of the President

is that he's not saying there are separate species.

You might get that from Zients' statement, but even there it sounds more like riffing off one of the President's favorite lines rather than declaring them to be two separate species.

[JoePhilly]

2. +1

[treestar]

3. That makes it even more ridiculous

The same salmon being regulated by different agencies depending on where they are. I wonder how many pages of regulations cover the jurisdiction issue - when does the salt water end and the fresh water begin?