Fw: SEA SHEPHERD APPLAUDS COURT DECISION HALTING MAKAH WHALE HUNT

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Sea Shepherd International <seashepherd

seashepherd <seashepherd

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Friday, June 09, 2000 8:03 PM

SEA SHEPHERD APPLAUDS COURT DECISION HALTING MAKAH WHALE HUNT

 

 

> June 9, 2000

>

> Sea Shepherd International Applauds Court Ruling on Makah Whale Hunt

>

> -Ruling on legality under international law expected in July

>

> Statement by Captain Paul Watson

> On board the Ocean Warrior

> Pier 16, Amsterdam, Netherlands

>

> The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has finally made a legal decision on a

> position the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has maintained since 1996:

> That the Makah whale hunt permitted by the US Administration did not meet

> the requirements of the National Environmental Protection Act. Sea

Shepherd

> applauds the courage and the commitment of Congressman Jack Metcalf and

the

> other plaintiffs in pursuing this case until justice was done.

> It has long been our position, now backed up by the Court's decision, that

> the U.S. Federal government simply rubber-stamped the Makah hunt request

> rather than conduct a proper assessment of its environmental impacts. The

> decision by the U.S. government to permite the hunt was based on politics,

> not on science.

> We now look to the International Whaling Commission, meeting at the end of

> this month in Adelaide, Australia, to issue a determination on the

ultimate

> legality of the hunt. The Makah hunt does not meet the criteria

established

> by the IWC for aboriginal whaling - i.e. subsistence need and an

continuous,

> unbroken tradition. We are confident that the IWC will charge that the

> killing of a baby grey whale off the coast of Washington in May 1999 was

an

> infraction of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

> Sea Shepherd International is committed to opposing this hunt because it

is

> a dangerous precedent which, if tolerated, will lead to further abuses by

> self-styled indigenous people such as the Norwegians and the Japanese, who

> maintain that their whale-hunting is both indigenous and traditional.

> The Sea Shepherd flagship Ocean Warrior is in Amsterdam preparing to

> intervene against the slaughter of pilot whales in the Danish Protectorate

> of the Faeroe Islands. The Faeroese maintain that they have a cultural and

> traditional right to kill between 1,000 and 3,000 pilot whales every

year -

> the largest and most cruel whale hunt in the world.

> If the Makah hunt resumes this fall, SSCS International will return to

Neah

> Bay to once again oppose the killing. This time if the Makah attempt to

kill

> a whale, we expect the U.S. Coast Guard to enforce the law with the same

> level of enthusiasm they have used in enforcing the " exclusionary zone "

> against the people protecting the whales.

>

> ###

>

>