Whale Hunt Update & Other News

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===== A message from the 'makahwhaling' discussion list =====

 

FROM WASHINGTON CITIZEN'S COASTAL ALLIANCE

 

 

SEKIU, WA: 10:02am PDT

Rainy, cool and windy! No activity on the water today- although protestors

are still on high alert...

 

News from the courtroom leads off today's update, and be sure to visit

www.stopwhalekill.org for further information!

*****

 

 

 

TRIAL FOR WHALING PROTESTORS TO BEGIN NEXT WEEK

 

>From Peninsula Daily News

Tuesday, June 06, 2000

By Austin Ramzy

 

The whaling protester who was run over by a Coast Guard boat after buzzing a

Makah whaling canoe on a personal watercraft in April will stand trial at

U.S. District Court in Tacoma beginning Monday. The Coast Guard said it

regretted Abbott's injuries, but blamed her for triggering the dangerous

situation.

 

Abbott's trial will be followed directly by the trial of Erin O'Connell,

also a member of the anti-whaling group Ocean Defense International. Both

women are charged with violating the moving, 1,500-foot exclusionary zone

around the Makah canoe. The charges carry a maximum sentence of six years in

prison and a $250,000 fine.

 

Arguments heard

During a hearing Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bryan heard

arguments on a motion to dismiss the charges that questioned the

constitutionality of the exclusionary zone. Bryan did not rule on the

motion, but indicated he would probably deny the motion to dismiss the

charges, said Wayne Fricke, attorney for O'Connell.

 

According to charging documents, O'Connell made a high-speed pass between

the Makah canoe and a Coast Guard cutter, penetrating 300 feet into the

exclusionary zone. Fricke said he planned to argue next week that O'Connell

thought she was outside of the restricted zone.

" Basically, what (the prosecution) is going to have to demonstrate in each

case is knowing and willful violation of the moving exclusionary zone,''

Fricke said. " As far as Ms. O'Connell is concerned, she thought she was on

the outside of that zone. That's what the argument will be.''

 

A Tacoma attorney representing Abbott could not be reached for comment

Monday.

 

The Paul Parker family unsuccessfully pursued gray whales off Cape Flattery

for several days this spring. Last week the John Parker family took up the

hunt, but was unable to take a gray whale. Last year a tribal-wide Makah

whaling crew killed the tribe's first gray whale in more than 70 years. The

whalers are facing a June 30 deadline to kill their quarry. According to an

agreement with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the whale migration

officially ends then.

 

The tribe's hunting plan says it must target migratory whales.

*****

 

 

 

FROM CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON

-------------------

'OPERATION GRINDSTOP'- Report from the " Ocean Warrior " in Amsterdam

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship " Ocean Warrior " is presently at

Pier 16 in Amsterdam. This is a very visible location in front of the

Amsterdam Central Train Station. The ship is undergoing final preparations

before departing at the end of June for the Danish Faeroe Islands, some 180

miles north of the Scottish Shetland Islands.

 

In Amsterdam, the Danish police have put the " Ocean Warrior " under 24 hour

surveillance.

 

The " Ocean Warrior " will take a crew of 46 to the Faeroe islands. This crew

will include major international media.

 

The Faeroes slaughter between 1500 and 3500 pilot whales every summer. This

is a non-commercial hunt and is conducted for recreation. The Faeroese claim

that the hunt is an essential part of their tradition.

*****

 

 

 

OFFICIALS CONSIDER GIVING SOME HATCHERIS TO TRIBES

-----------------------

Submitted by Jim Robertson

 

 

Dan Hansen - Staff writer

 

High-level federal officials, including a direct adviser to President

Clinton, are quietly discussing the transfer of some Northwest salmon and

steelhead hatcheries to Native American tribes.

 

The talks have sparked speculation that the government is trying to avoid a

lawsuit by the tribes over the sorry state of wild salmon runs.

 

" There's fear of back-room agreements to buy off the tribes so they won't

sue " said Mitch Sanchotena, executive director of Idaho Steelhead and Salmon

United, a sport fishing group. " There's been very little real work by the

Clinton-Gore Administration in terms of salmon restoration. "

 

The summary of a March 14 meeting on salmon-recovery issues lists six

hatcheries among those the tribes would like to own. They include two

massive fish factories, the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery and the

Clearwater Hatchery, both near Orofino, Idaho.

 

However, federal officials say the Dworshak and the Clearwater are not yet

on the table.

 

" They (the tribes) have a long, long list. They'd prefer to have many, many

hatcheries transferred, " said Ric Ilgenfritz of the National Marine

Fisheries Service. " But we're starting with four and talking about the terms

and conditions. "

 

Those four, which are federally funded but operated by the states, are the

Umatilla and Lookingglass in northeastern Oregon, the Kooskia in Idaho and

the Klickitat in south-central Washington, said Bill Shake, assistant

Northwest director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

Owning title to the hatcheries would mean a few more jobs for tribal

members, paid with federal salmon-recovery money. It would mean more

influence over salmon recovery, said Charles Hudson, spokesman for the

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which represents treaty tribes.

 

" Without owning and operating hatcheries, we are not truly co-managers of

salmon " with state and federal agencies, Hudson said.

 

But it's not clear how -- or even if -- transferring ownership might affect

hatchery operations.

 

States already consult with tribes over fish management. State officials

said they wouldn't willingly turn over hatcheries unless they were regularly

consulted on such matters as how many of each salmon species are produced,

and when and where they're released.

 

" We're not going to turn these facilities over and say, `Here, do what you

want with them,' " Ilgenfritz said. " We're going to turn them over under the

conditions of a management plan.

 

" The tribes are open to that. They want to prove themselves good fish

managers. "

 

Talk of transferring hatcheries is not new.

 

The state of Oregon agreed to eventual talks about shifting management to

the Umatilla Tribe as a condition to Bonneville Power Administration funding

for the Umatilla Hatchery in 1992. The Klickitat Hatchery is inside the

Yakama Indian Reservation as the result of a 1976 shift in the reservation

boundaries. Since then, the state and the tribe have talked repeatedly about

transferring the hatchery's title.

 

But the coordinated federal involvement is new.

 

In recent months, agencies involved in salmon recovery efforts have hosted a

series of " nation-to-nation " meetings with the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama

and Warm Springs tribes. Topics include anything related to salmon recovery.

 

Documents obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act indicate the

hatchery transfers were discussed during at least three meetings since

December.

 

After a December meeting in the White House, participants refused to comment

about their discussion.

 

The attendance record for a March 14 meeting in Lewiston includes top

regional administrators for the fisheries service, Fish and Wildlife

Service, BPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Leaders from the four

tribes attended, as did officials from the Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

 

The official notes from that meeting read: " The federal agencies agreed in

principle to support transfer of certain hatcheries to the tribes. "

 

That meeting was followed by another on April 25 in Washington, D.C.

Attendees included George Frampton, chairman of the White House Council on

Environmental Quality, who is Clinton's top adviser on environmental issues.

 

Hatchery transfers " was just one of a wide array of issues being discussed "

during that 21/2-hour meeting, said Frampton's spokesman, Elliot Diringer.

" There weren't any commitments made about the hatcheries. "

 

Leaders for the four tribes did not return telephone messages late last week

or Monday.

 

The tribes' biggest bargaining chip is the 1865 treaty that guarantees them

the right to fish. In recent years, they've threatened to sue if the

government doesn't do all it can to restore endangered salmon steelhead,

including breaching four Snake River dams in Eastern Washington. But the

fisheries service last month announced it will try other recovery options

for five to 10 years before deciding whether breaching is necessary.

 

" Of course, (the federal government is) trying to avoid a lawsuit, " said

Jeff Curtis, the West Coast Conservation Director for Trout Unlimited.

 

But Curtis, who previously worked for the Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said

the tribes aren't likely to " sell out " for a couple of hatcheries. If

recovery efforts fail, he notes, they'll lose a fishery that's thousands of

years old and growing in cultural and economic importance.

 

Most of the salmon and steelhead caught by Idaho sportsmen are reared in the

Dworshak and Clearwater hatcheries. Like many others in the region, they

were built to make up for fish habitat lost to dams.

 

Dworshak is federally operated, with an annual budget of $1.8 million. The

state of Idaho runs the Clearwater hatchery, with $1.4 million in federal

money. The Kooskia Hatchery is a satellite of Dworshak, with a budget of

$243,000.

 

The Umatilla Hatchery, which is on the Columbia River, and the Lookingglass

Hatchery, on the Grande Ronde River in northeastern Oregon, have annual

budgets of $934,000 and about $500,000.

 

The 50-year-old Klickitat Hatchery produces chinook and coho salmon, with a

budget of about $500,000.

*****

 

 

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