If you are speaking of the water rights issues in Oregaon, the fish is the
native SALMON, not a man-introduced species. And the reservoir is the
problem (from the fish's point of view, not necessarily mine). Although it
has no legal standing, the native americans below the dam do and those
rights have clearly been violated (as have most such rights that the US govt
has so benevolently supervised for the benefit of the native americans that
(apparently in the US opinion) cannot look after their rights themselves).
Farmers have drained the reservoirs to the extent they simply don't allow
water through and the salmon are dying in stagnant pools of no running
water.

Leaving out both the fish and the native americans (who have conservation
and hunting rights) and those of any wildlife and bears. There is still the
issue of the livelihood of other (non-native) americans who depend on the
rivers -- fishermen, wildlife guides, people renting cabins to fishermen,
those selling gas and groceries to the fishermen, etc.... The issue is much
more complex than letting some fish wreck the livelihood of a small number
of farmers (who may or may not be contributing to the over production of
many foods in this country, leading to poverty of many family farmers who
cannot make any wage from their efforts (let alone a living wage)). Similar
issues surround those running and working at paper mills in the southeast --
many times the pollution caused in the river downstream (which is deamed not
economically correctable by the mill and it's state govt and thus exempted
year after year by the EPA) is such that the economic effects on tourism
(not to mention the increased medical costs of those living next to the
river) far exceeds the annual gross sales of the mill. But any mention of
forcing the mill to bring their effluent into compliance results in threats
to close the mill, thrusting one small section of a small county into
poverty. Their state responds to the blackmail each time, as the jobs lost
and live affected are all downstream, in another state (which doesn't get to
vote in the elections of those who are causing their problems).


"Wuffman" wrote in message
news
You obviously don't have a grsp of the situation... a fish that was put
in
a man made resevore does not have any more rights to the water than the
men
that use " some " of the water.... the fish is not on the endagered
species
list...
or even on the threatened speciaes list... it was proven in a court of law
since then tha the average amount of water that is used by the farmers in
the basin would not be detrimental to the survival of the fish there...