Bush Kills Endangered Fish: Big Hole River Grayling Funeral

A somber day, this, with a funeral ceremony commemorating the Big Hole River's late, great, fluvial Arctic grayling.

It began with a Montana grandpa and granddaughter out for a day of fishing.

"Grandpa, were there a lot of grayling in the Big Hole River when you were a kid?"

Sure were. We’d catch and release a bunch of them in a day’s fishing."

"Grandpa, do you think we'll catch and release a grayling today?"

"Well, honey, there might be one or two left. But not for long, because the Bush administration doesn’t care about endangered species."

Look, Grandpa! There's a grayling! It's beautiful."

Well, let's try to catch and release it."

Suddenly, an evil man with a terrible sneer, evil laugh, and a big cowboy hat came running onto the scene. What did he want? What would he do?

Grabbing the poor stunned creature, the crazed man screamed, "No grayling for you! Hah, hah, hah..." Then, he picked up the grayling and ran off, sneering and shouting, " No grayling left behind! NO GRAYLING LEFT BEHIND!" Then, he thrust the rare and endangered fish onto a pyre.

Grandpa, that nutcase killed the grayling! Who is he?"

"The worst President in the history of our country. "

President Dubya was followed by two sychphants wearing "FWS" t-shirts.

"Grandpa, who are those people following grayling killer Bush and begging for their jobs?"

"Those are the US Fish and Wildlife Service professionals who think job security is more important than scientific integrity and protecting your heritage.

But maybe it's NOT too late: The Endangered Species Act was designed to save our natural heritage—rare native species such as the Big the grayling a death sentence. We must appeal this ruling, and save the grayling for our children and grandchildren.

The Center for Biological Diversity has not given up on grayling, and will announce today (May 15) its 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the US Fish & Wildlife Service regarding its grayling decision. Some other groups are also deliberating a legal challenge of the agency decision.

Stay tuned for more information about a legal challenge from the Center for Biological Diversity http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/ of the recent Fish & Wildlife Service decision to let Big Hole River grayling become extinct.

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Credits:
Thank you to Wayne Hadley as Grandpa, Michelle Schahczenski as Granddaughter, Jeff Schahczenski as President Dubya, Hue-Chu Tu as FWS employee one, and AJ Puckett as FWS employee two.
Thank you to the Big Hole River grayling prop construction crew of Andrea & Don Stierle, Hwe-Chu Tu, Frank Ackerman, Celia & Jeff Schahczenski, Chad Okrusch, David Hobbs, AJ Puckett, and Wayne Hadley.
Thank you to Justin Ringsak, Brittany McEwen Rauch, and Justin's friend who filmed the event and who are working on the YouTube post.
And thank you to the many folks who showed up today to bear witness to the sad plight of our beautiful and endangered native fish, the Big Hole River grayling.