This is not the first time of course that slanted and pre-determined conclusions to suit a political agenda are drawn from supposedly “rigorously peer-reviewed research”. Peer-review carried out correctly is no doubt very effective but it also always discourages the non-establishment view. And if the establishment has a preconceived “belief”, then any views dissenting from that orthodoxy are easy to suppress.
There are new allegations of scientific misconduct being directed at the National Park Service. A park service study claims an oyster farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore is harming wildlife, but there are disturbing new questions about the science behind that study.
The Drakes Bay Oyster Company has been at Point Reyes since the 1930s, but the National Park Service says it must close in 2012 in order to return it back to wilderness. The park service released a study in April claiming to have evidence the oyster farm is a threat to harbor seals, driving them out of their home in Drakes Estero. However, an independent analysis by outside experts shows that evidence is slanted to make the oyster farm look bad.
Addendum (21st September 2011)
Disturbance rates in the upper estero (subsites OB, UEF, UEN) significantlyincreased with oyster harvest (rs = 0.55, P < 0.03) (Fig. 2B). This correlationis highly robust to sample size. For example, there was still a significant positivecorrelation (rs = 0.53, P < 0.04) of disturbance rate with oyster harvest evenwhen removing the 2006 disturbance, four of the 2007 disturbances (including twodisturbances on 1 day in 2007 that the mariculture company challenged), and four ofthe 1996 disturbances (nine total) from the analysis. Similarly, oyster harvest levelsin years with oyster related disturbances were significantly higher (U = 43, n =13, P1−tail < 0.04).
The independent study itself seems to have been done by heavyweights in the world of science led by Corey S Goodman:
“This is a published paper, it’s publicly available, it’s been supported by taxpayer dollars, it’s done by government scientists,” said biologist Corey Goodman, Ph.D. Goodman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and he has published more than 200 scientific papers. He was asked by a Marin County supervisor in 2007 to look into how the park was conducting scientific research and he’s been pouring over data ever since. …….
It took the National Park Service three months to hand over their data to Goodman. When he finally got it, he shared it with statisticians at Stanford and U.C. Davis to see if they could replicate the results. “And what I find is that none of the conclusions in the paper are valid,” said Goodman. ……That’s why Goodman is charging the park service with distorting science to fit their ultimate goal of closing the oyster farm.
Further details of Dr. Goodman’s charges of scientific misconduct are here.
The author of the Parks Service paper seems to have gone into hiding and the Parks Service is in a defensive mode.
ABC7 wanted to hear from the park service scientist who wrote the study, Dr. Ben Becker, director of the Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center at Point Reyes National Seashore. We asked the park service for an interview, left messages for Becker, and sent emails, but never heard back. We even went to his house to get answers, but Becker refused to answer our questions.
Park service spokesman Melanie Gunn told us in an email that Becker’s paper “went through a rigorous peer review process.”
But merely invoking peer-review -which is notoriously patchy in its quality – and which often ends up as being “pal-review” is unlikely to be enough in this case.
Goodman’s concerns were still enough to raise the interest of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California. The senator has asked the Marine Mammal Commission to do an independent review of the park service study and now she wants the park service to delay its environmental impact statement on the oyster farm until after that review. She sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
In it the letter, Feinstein says: “I fear that if the Department of Interior does not stand behind the independent analysis, it will be another example of a lack of credibility at Point Reyes National Seashore.”
The park service says it is cooperating with the review but still plans to release its report this month, adding that “Dr. Becker continues to work with the Marine Mammal Commission on any remaining questions the Commission may have.”
Related: Peer review and the corruption of science
Tags: Ben Becker, Corey Goodman, NationalParkService, peer review, Point Reyes National Seashore, Scientific misconduct
The k2p blog 
October 5, 2011 at 10:25 pm
This ABC report’s ‘new allegations’ is actually recycled PR, initiated in May, 2006 by The Point Reyes Light. Dr. Goodman’s ‘false-science circus’ gains unwarranted acclaim from his influence as chair of the newspaper’s governing board. His crusade is designed to distract public attention from the dubious legitimacy of Drakes Bay Oyster Company’s tenure, due to end in 2012. It advances national anti-regulatory propaganda for exploitation of public lands for private profit.
Dr. Goodman’s attacks target science, policy and employees of Point Reyes National Seashore parkland. They have been dismissed by many credible, independent, professional bodies. The Office of the Solicitor reconfirmed, in March 2011, that Dr. Goodman’s “numerous rancorous submissions” were unsupported.
A gag order prevents official responses to media inquiries. Yet, the Anti-Wilderness crusade for the Lunny clan’s oyster operation (DBOC), has a multi-million dollar PR agency working the press. Columnist Bill Meagher, in “Something Smells Fishy” (NorthBay Biz, Nov.2008) reports that, by September, 2009 “it would appear Lunny was certainly auditioning for the part of David, but that was before the Big Dogs got off the porch and began to howl.” Sam Singer, “known in media circles as an expert on spin” poses Lunny as victim of government abuse. Regarding Singer’s “incendiary press release” Meagher writes, “If the headline was a stretch, the body of the release was a mix of fiction, innuendo and shading, with a sprinkling of truth here and there for spice.” (BTW: Kim Vo, in the San Jose Mercury News, 6Jan2008 pegs Singer as the Bay area’s “go-to crisis manager” when “the glare is bright and unflattering.” His so-called underdogs include: pilot of the SF Bay oil spill, and Jack in the Box meat contamination.)
Does kid-glove, personal legislation strong-armed by Senator Feinstein really sound like DBOC is an underdog? Her improper manipulations benefit big political donors by misusing ‘Science Court’ to stalemate public policy. The California Law Review, in June 2011, gives an authoritative overview of the DBOC vs. PRNS as a case study of political abuse of policy decisionmaking: http://www.californialawreview.org/assets/pdfs/99-2/11-Fein.pdf
Shameless PR distortions and widespread scientific illiteracy have mislead many well-intentioned people. Even the appeal of ‘clean, local, protein from a small family farm’ is spurious. The bulk of DBOC’s product is processed and shipped away. As for sustainability myths: even Kevin Lunny admits that water acidification has killed off millions of his oysters. Grants for permits and environmental compliance excourage expansion of mariculture in Humboldt Bay’s thousands of unused acres. The oyster production from only 325 acres there dwarfs DBOC’s yield from more than 1,000 embattled acres on the edge of unique wilderness.
The fight for the right to close Drakes Bay Oyster Company is far more than a provincial spat over petty industry in domesticated wilderness. It exposes the slick shift of manipulating sentiment, toward plundering public interest for private privilege. Like the Bush tax cuts, this abuse of public trust should expire: you can reject Drake Bay Oyster Company’s request for a special use permit by commenting on the recent Draft Environmental Impact Statement, before November 29: parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=43390
[ The author is an independent researcher living in West Marin. Civil responses are welcome to info.flipside2012@gmail.com ]