Ask your federal representative to sign on to the Metcalf letter

[Guest guest]

July 23, 2000 -- This morning, Congressman Jack Metcalf (WA) will start

circulating, among his colleague members of the US Congress, a letter

addressed to the International Whaling Commission. Congressman Metcalf is

hoping to collect in excess of 100 co-signatures in time to formally submit

this letter to the IWC Secretariat, prior to their forthcoming meeting.

 

The letter (complete text included below) essentially asks the IWC to

discipline the United States Commerce Department for their recent violation

of the US NEPA process, and to intervene by directing the US not to allow

this hunt to continue. There is little time to collect signatures, so we

must now act and have our respective Congressional representative be aware

of Metcalf's plans to circulate the letter, and have them take a proactive

step to ensure their names are added to the brief.

 

Citizens across the country are asked to IMMEDIATELY contact their

respective members of Congress and ask them to sign onto Congressman

Metcalf's letter. There is a prospect that continued pressure may

encourage a political end to this distasteful, precedent setting slaughter

of whales. Please call your Congressional representative TODAY!

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Dear IWC Commissioners -

 

We, the undersigned members of the 106th Congress of the United States, are

writing to urge the IWC to stop the Makah Indian Tribe's gray whale hunt.

 

On June 9, 2000, The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

ruled that the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, a branch of

the US Commerce department, violated the most basic requirements of US law

in the course of supporting the Makah Indian Tribe's unprecedented attempt

to hunt gray whales in a National Marine Sanctuary. The court ruled that

the Department of Commerce has subverted the National Environmental Policy

Act (NEPA) by making a decision to support the Makah's whaling effort --

including committing to advocate the Makah's position to the IWC -- before

engaging in any of the required NEPA analysis.

 

The US government never conducted an unbiased lawful analysis of the

effects of the proposed hunt -- including its potential repercussions on

the small resident gray whale population that resides within the Olympic

Coast Marine Sanctuary. Impairment of the public's ability to enjoy that

Sanctuary was not considered. The government's ability to continue to

execute the will of Congress in effectively opposing the resumption of

commercial whaling worldwide, in light of the Makah hunt, was not

evaluated. The Court ordered the government to complete a new environmental

assessment " free of the previous taint " before supporting the hunt.

 

When the IWC approved the 1997 joint quota request which allowed the Makah

to begin hunting whales, members of the IWC were lead to believe that the

US government had adequately studied the matter, and had complied fully

with US law. Presumably, if the members of the IWC knew that the US had

run roughshod over its most elementary legal requirement, they would never

have approved such a quota.

 

Under those circumstances, it is obvious that the IWC should immediately

recognize that its prior consideration of this matter was tainted by the US

government's violation of environmental law. Once the department of

Commerce has fulfilled its environmental obligations, the Commission should

have the opportunity to debate the merits of the Makah whaling application

with full knowledge of its effects.

 

Thank you for your attention to this letter. We are confident that when the

IWC is able to evaluate an unbiased assessment of the full effects of the

Makah hunt, it will call for an end to it.

 

Sincerely, [undersigned members of Congress]

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

Project SeaWolf

P.O. Box 987

Marysville, WA 98270

" A federally-registered 501c3 non-profit organisation "

 

email to: ProjSeaWolf

 

See Our Review of Northwest Eco-tourism Operators -- " Make Sure You Only

Select The Best! "

http://home.earthlink.net/~projseawolf/ecos.htm