"This is complicated, Mrs. Lloyd"

Yesterday, I posed the current event question to my students about the delta smelt, a 2-inch fish that is on the endangered species list. A California judge has ruled that the irrigation pumps to the Central Valley's farms be turned off to save the fish, despite the 3-year draught that is facing the farmers of 25% of our nation's produce. The smelt eats the plankton, and is in turn eaten by larger fish, such as salmon (oh, the third graders LOVE that food chain stuff).

So the question is: do we save the fish from extinction, or save jobs and food (and help the economy, as one so appropriately pointed out)?

"This is complicated, Mrs. Lloyd," was the first response from one.

"Yes, you're right. What do you think?"

Some said "save the fish at all cost" while others thought the impact on human lives were much more important than those of a fish. A few students derived plans to place mesh screens or netting along the riverside to prevent the fish from getting into the pumps so that the fish could be saved and the farms could get the water from the river that runs right through their farmland. One student wisely suggested that "if the fish are that important, then we should raise them in a National Fish Hatchery, to be released in greater number out into the wild."

However, they overwhelmingly agreed upon one solve-it-all answer:

Pray for rain.