NEW BEDFORD — President Barack Obama is being mocked by a Washington Post columnist who heard his comments about salmon regulation and decided the president needs to go back to school on fish.
The point of the column was that Obama didn't understand that salmon alternate between fresh and saltwater, and there aren't salmon exclusively one or the other.
Readers pounced on that, saying Obama never said there were two kinds of salmon and that perhaps the president knows more than the columnist does.
As it happens, Obama may have made a mistake that undercuts his laugh line. Kate Poole, a staff blogger for the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote: "NOAA is and has long been the lead agency in charge of protecting salmon in salt and freshwater. It should stay that way. The proposed reorganization is a solution in search of a problem. If the administration is interested in real improvements, it should be figuring out how to do more to ensure that NOAA's scientists remain independent, well-supported and insulated from political pressure."
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