Metcalf letter to be circulated to Congressional reps - contact yours to sign on

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WEST END NEWS: Congressman seeks full whaling ban

Monday, June 26, 2000

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Peninsula Daily News

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U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Whidbey Island, whose recent challenge to the

Makah tribe's whaling was upheld in federal court, is circulating a protest

letter to the International Whaling Commission.

 

Metcalf hopes to get more than 100 other members of Congress to sign the

letter.

 

The document urges the IWC to oppose the Makah's whale hunts because of the

June 9 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

 

" . . . When the IWC approved the 1997 joint quota request which allowed the

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

the U.S. government had adequately studied the matter, and had complied

fully with U.S. law,'' the letter says in part.

 

" Presumably, if the members of the IWC knew that the U.S. had run roughshod

over its most elementary legal requirement, they would never have approved

such a quota.''

 

The ruling by a three-member panel of the appeals court was a victory for

Metcalf and other opponents of the Makah hunt who said federal officials

flouted environmental laws. They said officials agreed to the hunt long

before the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) had done its

environmental review.

 

The court found fault with the timing of the process rather than the content

of the report.

 

The court order takes effect later this summer. The spring whaling season

closes at the end of this month. Members of Makah families have gone on nine

hunts, throwing seven harpoons but not striking any whales.

 

Whaling is scheduled to resume in the fall. By then, the Makah hope a new

environmental study will be finished and approved by the courts.

 

The study will be conducted by the Northwest regional office of the NMFS.

Agency officials said they were unsure how long it will take.

 

 

 

 

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http://www.stopwhalekill.org

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