Sam Farr: “What is interesting about tourism is, why do people go into the outdoors? It is really to experience the outdoors. And…”

“What is interesting about tourism is, why do people go into the outdoors? It is really to experience the outdoors. And how is that? It is not just the beautiful shapes of mountains and trees and natural forms; it is also the wildlife. We were able to successfully recover a sea otter herd. The sea otter was thought to be extinct. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a marine scientist discovered them off Big Sur, kept them a secret, because there were no laws in place to protect them; but now that they have been protected by Federal law, the sea otter population has come back. It has, unfortunately, had some setbacks this year with disease, and perhaps with too many boats in the habitat; but that sea otter population on the California coastline is now a multimillion dollar industry, watching sea otters. And who makes money off of that? Certainly they do not. But people who make T-shirts, who make mugs, who make jewelry, who take photographs, who provide boat trips, who do interpretive studies. The point is that the wildlife can be one of our most viable economic industries if we manage it well. And that is what this is all about; it is trying to have a planet.…”