Wanna Guess?

Eric May continues perfecting his  inspector Clouseau act with the release of Dr. Jeffrey Gleason's last interrogation.  In an effort to pound sand even harder, May is now looking into the Bowhead Whale Artic Survey Project database for more dead polar bears, obviously to show that Gleason and Monnett's paper was criminal.

Per an email from Special Agent Eric May, which PEER obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the IG is looking into the 30-year database of BWASP observations with special focus on the 2007 transition of the survey from Interior to the Marine Mammal Lab.  In addition, the IG wants “to determine if dead polar bears were documented in the BWASP database between 1987- 2003” in an apparent attempt to show that sightings of four drowned polar bears following a storm in 2004 was not remarkable. 

May found two dead bears noted in the margins, in wait for it, September 2004, before the big storm, after which Gleason and Monnett noted the extra dead bears, so now he is bugging the NOAA National Marine Mammal Lab to which the database was transferred last decade.  PEER has obtained some Emails in which the folks at NMML ask to be invited out, they want no part of this nonsense

The Marine Mammal Lab originally demurred on the IG request for further interviews, pointing out that all of the data had been retrieved, copied and sent back to Interior in 2011.  The IG apparently is still seeking assistance on how to unravel decades of BWASP data.  PEER has filed a formal complaint that any such review should be done by knowledgeable scientists rather than untrained criminal investigators.

Since both Monnett and Gleason have testified many times that they made a good faith effort to locate any such reports in the database, and produced records of their search, it is difficult to see how May and his superiors justify  this continuing harassment.  It is, to put it bluntly, not their job or expertise to publish data on polar bear mortality, and it is already painfully obvious that whoever sent Eric May after them had a political vendetta in mind, perhaps the DOI IG might look into that.

There is something of general interest towards the end tho.  May describes an Email forwarded by Monnett to Gleason which originated from the World Wildlife Fund UK

MAY:  And it's from Julia Woolford (phonetic) from that organization, and she forwarded this -- or she wrote this to Dr. Ian Stirling, and then forwarded it to Dr. Monnett who ultimately forwarded it to you.  And the start of the email says, "Dear Ian and (inaudible).  Once again, sorry to bother you for more information at short notice.  The interest from WWFUK in fund-raising for Arctic conservation has  increased and we have been inundated with copy which needs clearance  for possible fund-raising activities.

"One treatment that they seem keen on is the idea of more polar bears drowning as a result of climate change and melting ice.  They sent me the attached note.  I'd seen this press coverage, but didn't pay it too much attention as I assumed that it was probably not scientifically verifiable. 

"However, it looks like we need a view on this so we could avoid any potentially ill-advised fund-raising attempts by colleagues.  The  other treatment they are considering revolves more simply around polar  bears disappearing before the end of the century as a result of disappearing sea ice.

"What they want to know is what is likely to happen to the bears.

Will they simply become extinct, will they interbreed with brown bears?  What might happen?  Will be a regional extinction," -- et cetera.

This reflects well on the WWF, while they consider the situation serious, they are also considering it seriously, not wanting to make claims that go beyond the scientific evidence

So, Dr. Ian wrote to Dr. Monnett, "Hi, Chuck.  Nice to see you in (inaudible) the other day briefly.  The enclosed is self-explanatory.   It looks pretty sensational.  List it to me, but since you are the   only one with real information on this, would you mind giving a brief assessment to Woolford."

And then Dr. Monnett forwarded to you and Dr. Monnett says, "Give me a break."  Do you recall receiving this email, by chance? 

Dr. Gleason, in his answer provides the context for that reply and the reason why May's aggression is so damaging

GLEASON:. .in the first interview I had mentioned that about the time the first poster came out, it became -- it got to the point where we could not, as scientists, contact scientists or biologists in the sister agencies.

So, it got sort of weird.  We were told, "You will not talk about polar bears, sea ice, climate change or any of those issues to anybody."  And that included other scientists and other agencies.  At the same time, obviously we had requests for information, those sorts of requests, you know.

But it was sort of a weird time to be a biologist/scientist in the agency at the time, and it was one of the reasons, probably the primary reason that I left the agency up there because of this sort of, "You will not" -- which was a little disconcerting, given what was going on.

But, yes -- so, I -- I probably received multiple forwards that Chuck would get regarding the requests, and I -- obviously I wouldn't have responded to the request outside of Chuck.  I mean, Dr. Monnett.

So, -- and "Give me a break," pretty much, I think, solidifies his opinion of that request as well.

 There is no doubt that this three year clown show has had a hugely negative effect of scientists in the Department of the Interior and the US Government in general.  There is both comedy and tragedy in the testimony, frankly, if Eli were Gleason's adviser the Bunny would advise him to give monosyllabic answers.

So who is to blame for this?  In a news report from NPR on Polar Bear IG Abuse, Eli is reminded

The scientific integrity allegations regarding the journal article stem from a complaint made by a Department of the Interior employee in March of 2010, according to an August 2011 letter from the Office of Inspector General to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who had requested information on the probe.

Rabett Run is taking bets that this was RP Sr.'s pal, Indur Golklany.  Perhaps his Email needs be trolled through?