Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Posts Tagged ‘uber-skeptics’

In my previous post about Oregon columnist Bob Welch’s piece on praising The Lord before partaking of bison, wild cow, nutria, lemon peppered cougar and bear, I mentioned that Welch had written a column about Bigfoot. The column is reprinted on the Bigfoot Encounters website, with comments about Welch’s column. Here it is, from March of 2002:Bob Welch: Tall, tall tales equal Bigfoot The column, inspired by Welchs reading Bigfoot at 50: Evaluating a Half-Century of Bigfoot Evidence. in theSkeptical Inquirer. Welch basically follows the uber skeptic mindset concerning Bigfoot and basically parroting their stand on Bigfoot. Commenting that one almost wants to be a “dreamer” and believe in Bigfoot, it just can’t be:

But you can’t.

Why not? Because the idea is so bizarre? Nope. Bizarreness shouldn’t preclude belief in something. People believe in all sorts of bizarre concepts, from God to gravity to Oregon’s home football uniforms.

No, the real reason you can’t believe is because most of the “water-tight” evidence leaks like your 25-year-old gutters. To wit:

And then he lists the skeptic response of, basically “no evidence” and quotes skeptic Benjamin Radford.

Otters have been seen off the Oregon coast. We’re not supposed to tell anyone though, according to Sea otter sighting raises stir, questions Some biologists prefer the rare sightings be kept quiet in Eugene’s Register-Guard.

The confirmed sighting of a sea otter in Depoe Bay last month generated wild excitement. The species, after all, was thought to have been extinct in Oregon for a century — even by wildlife experts.

But the creature seen lolling in the surf as he munched on a crab wasn’t actually the first confirmed sighting in 103 years. It was just the first one about which the media went and blabbed all over tarnation.

The people who knew about previous otter sightings had kept their mouths shut.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife biologist Roy Lowe knew sea otters had resurfaced in Oregon from time to time, despite the failed attempt to reintroduce a thriving population here in the 1970s. He just preferred that the fact be kept as quiet as possible.

“We’re aware of a number of sightings of individual otters over the years,” Lowe said. “We haven’t published those sightings.”

About eight years ago, we sat in a lovely cozy restaurant in Gold Beach and watched otters in the Rogue River. River otters, not sea otters, although the river otter hangs out on the coast, so I’m not sure exactly of the difference. I’m not a marine biologist, I just fantasize I’m one.

This secrecy from authority as to the otter’s existence has another layer. Understandably, the news the otter is webbily afoot is to protect the otter from those who would do it harm. But I’m reminded of stories about the existence of creatures in areas where they supposedly don’t exist: wolverines, Roosevelt elk, and Sasquatch, in Oregon, where the locals have long been aware of the existence of these creatures, because they’ve seen either evidence of their existence by way of tracks, smell, scat, etc. or have actually seen the creatures. Yet denial continued to come from the authority, who, in many cases, would not come to the area (s) in question to look for themselves. All right, to be fair, about Sasquatch…that’s possibly a whole other area. The point is, people who live in an area, and are familiar with the flora and fauna, are aware of what’s occurring around them.

Of course, all these creatures: otters (sea or river), wolverines, elk in unexpected places, and Sasquatch, are probably just owls, since that’s really what people are seeing when they think they’ve seen something that shouldn’t be there. And even if it is there and not an owl, shhhh…we’re not going to talk about it, remember?

image source.