Quote Originally Posted by ON3 3Y3D WILLI3 View Post
"Extinction under todays regualtions? Please, this "Ecologist" is a clown."

-said the Gulf Coast shrimp farmer two weeks prior to the spill.
-said the corrupt Kenyan Game Warden who could charge 35,000USD for a license to hunt Rhinos in the 1950's.

How'd that work out for ya?

Sorry, I didn't read the actual article since it is in publication and not released, but I read the blurb and a few of the posts and thought the quote above would be a good one to clip out and give to the grandchildren's children in about 50 or 60 years. Population ecology and conservation are not based solely on regulations but on ALL of the factors that could contribute to a species decline, or propagation. This study looks as though it is hypothesizing models for hunting and fishing regulations that could contribute, along with other natural and unnatural environmental factors, to long-term sustainable opportunities (i.e. after you and I are dead.) Weird that this would be frowned upon, and weirder still to frown upon it because it comes from the same scientists that lay-people would turn to when species (especially recreational species) are in decline. I do not think that the ecologists that put forth ideas about the reintroduction of Elk into KY is a joke and you better believe that hunter or not, scientist or not, he or she was going to test which models would be the most effective and most sustainable in the long-term and then apply it to further scrutiny and analysis.

Global warming and climate change are not population ecology, but do effect population ecology, species distribution, and conservation. That's science 101, not "Top Scientist" material.

Extinction in this sense does not mean gone forever, as in dinosaur or dodo extinction. One looks at the environments, habitats, and ranges of animals over time to see shifts in the species distribution and population structures. Many species have become extinct and endangered in our lifetime, but many are extinct from their historical geographic range. This is called extirpation, or local extinction.
Comparing the gulf coast spill to the extinction of say whitetail deer is apples to matchbox cars. Obviusly, now that the oil spill happened they are going to try and save of much aquatic life as they can and I would assume that the wildife biologist will adjust things accordingly.

Also, there was no "ecologist" involved in the elk reintroduction. Sound wildlife management is what brought back the populations of whitetails, turkey, elk and to an exten bear to this state alone.

BTW, we already have time limits. They are called hunting seasons. If it was ever needed, we would have fishing seasons as well like the do up north and out west. We also have these things called bag limits that can be adjusted as well, i.e rezoning some counties for deer due the the EHD outbreak of a couple of years ago.