Early in the debate, McCain derided:
You know, we spent $3 million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. I don't know if that was a criminal issue or a paternal issue, but the fact is that it was $3 million of our taxpayers' money. And it has got to be brought under control.
Criminality? Paternity? This canard has has been cut from and pasted into his stump speech so often that it has become as unintelligible as his wish to "deliver bottled hot water to dehydrated babies".
However, this was not simply sloppy speechwriting - this stump speech remnant speaks volumes about McCain's disdain for endangered species and his ignorance of modern science, in particular genomics.
McCain has been critical of this specific research appropriation for a long time. In February, Scientific American reported on McCain's "beef with bears" which had been featured in both his stump speeches and TV ads. His press office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Scientific American reports that the research on genetic material of Montana's grizzly bears is aimed at obtaining the first accurate population estimate of grizzlies living in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. This research fulfills the federal government's obligation under the Endangered Species Act to help identify and conserve threatened species. Although the grizzly has been listed as a threatened species since 1975, until the DNA study researchers were unable to conduct research at the scale necessary to get a reliable measure of the population.
The research is based on a novel method to accurately profile the population - barbed wire hair-snagging stations were set up to pluck fur from passing bears that would be used for DNA identification of individual bears. The research team collected 34,000 samples in 2004. Given that genetic analysis of a single sample averages $50 and that the research funding appropriation covered the period 2003-2007, the size of the research budget (actually $4.8 million) is well within reason.
The population estimation method has been described by this research team in the journal Ecological Applications ("Multiple data sources improve DNA-based mark-recapture population estimates of grizzly bears" Ecological Applications 2008 vol 18, pp 577-589). Similar research has been undertaken in other areas of the United States - for example the Recovery Plan for the federally threatened Louisiana black bear mandates that remnant populations be estimated and monitored. Moreover, genetic studies of other bear populations have been used to determine levels of genetic variation and monitor for evidence of population inbreeding.
The early 21st century has been called the "age of the genome". Genomics, in addition to its obvious role at the forefront of medical research, has additional myriad applications in areas as diverse as paleontology, environmental research, and linguistics. In the future, breakthrough solutions to the energy crisis may be biological - based on genomics research (for example, a genome sequencing project of the electric eel has been proposed in order to investigate biologic ways of producing and storing electricity).
While the United States falls behind the rest of world in educational attainment, particularly in math and the sciences, and is on the verge of losing pre-eminence in many areas of scientific research, a Presidential aspirant ought to applaud valuable research and encourage respect for inquiry. McCain has fallen far short of the leadership standard expected here.
McCain's repeated derision is undeserved and does a great disservice to the individual researchers he has targeted. He has promised
I'm going to veto every single spending bill that comes across my desk. I will make them famous. You will know their names.
He would do better to make famous examples of valuable work honestly and diligently done, such as this mandated and necessary research that endeavors to preserve an American natural treasure.
On the other hand, perhaps we expect too much of McCain. In choosing as his VP the creationist Governor Palin who opposed the decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, it appears McCain has truly found his "partner and soulmate".
Perhaps the greatest irony: recently released results from this very study show that that grizzlies could be rebounding and could help ease restrictions on oil and gas drilling, logging and other development. Now I wish he had been able to veto it .... :(