Guest guest Posted October 9, 2000 Report Share Posted October 9, 2000 FROM WASHINGTON CITIZEN'S COASTAL ALLIANCE -- FEDS: NEW ASSESSMENT NOTHING MORE THAN " A NEW HUNT MANAGEMENT PLAN. " Surprise, surprise! The federal government is already stacking the deck against whaling opponents. The new environmental assessment is now being called a " biological assessment. " The following article from the Peninsula Daily News details just how biased the National Marine Fisheries Service continues to be on this issue. Even now, months before a final " decision " could possibly be reached, they are already referring to the process as a way to " formulate a new hunt management plan. " This is outrageous behavior by an agency that has already been spanked once by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Here we go again! If the feds continue down this path they will not only trigger another lawsuit, but will also find themselves in the uncomfortable position of explaining these statement to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.... The feds are also fighting tooth and nail against the idea of a public hearing being held in Port Angeles. Imagine the gall of the American people! How dare they demand that their voices be heard? ***** FURTHER HUNTS HINGE ON ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY --- Court-ordered assessment won't be complete for months By Austin Ramzy Peninsula Daily News October 8, 2000 A new environmental assessment of the Makah Indian Tribe's gray whale hunt could still be months away, federal officials said. And Makah officials say they will hold off for completion of the study before proceeding with further hunts. " We're going to wait. We're not excited, " tribal Chairman Ben Johnson Jr. said. " They'll be there when we're ready to go. " The assessment, which will gauge the affect of the hunt on the population of Pacific gray whales, was ordered by a federal appeals court in June. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that by making a commitment to support the Makah hunt before it completed the study, the National Marine Fisheries Service " failed to take a 'hard look' at the environmental consequences of (its) actions. " The Makah's 1855 treaty with the federal government, in which the tribe gave up much of its land on the Olympic Peninsula, assures it the right to hunt whales. The tribe stopped whaling in the 1920s as the whale population plummeted. WHALING RESUMED With the whale population on the rebound, the tribe resumed its hunt two years ago. On May 17, 1999, a Makah whaling crew took the tribe's first whale in 70 years. The appeals court panel found that the Fisheries Service agreed to support the hunt before studying how it would affect the whale population. Federal biologists have been working on the new environmental statement since shortly after the June court decision. The original draft assessment was released on Aug. 22, 1997. Two months earlier two anti-whaling groups has said the government was in violation of the law for not preparing an assessment. Following the court ruling, the Fisheries Service is going about the process much more cautiously. A public hearing had been scheduled for this month, said Brian Gorman, Fisheries Service spokesman, but that event has been postponed. " It's been put off for a while. I don't have a date, but it looks like later this year is the safest thing I can say, " he said. " There isn't any set schedule. SInce the court took us to task for not doing it right the first time, I suspect they're being really careful to do it right. That may be responsible for the deliberateness with which we are conducting this. " PUBLIC HEARING IN SEATTLE The assessment will likely have a 30-day comment period, and the Fisheries Service is tentatively planning a public hearing in Seattle. Whaling opponents have complained that 30 days is too little time to comment. They also want the Fisheries Service to hold a public hearing in Port Angeles. The assessment will be " pretty dispassionate, " Gorman said. " It's purely a biological analysis of what's in store with the whales. It won't touch on policy matters. That's not the job of a biological assessment. " The assessment will look at the overall state of the gray whale population. The species was placed under federal protection in 1970. In 1994 the eastern stock of the Pacific gray whale was taken off the endangered species list. The population of migratory gray whales is now estimated at about 26,000. In recent years high numbers of dead whales have washed up along the Pacific Coast. One explanation has been that the population is reaching its natural ceiling. The biological review will be used to formulate a new hunt management plan, Gorman said. The plan is an agreement between the Makah and the Fisheries Service on how the hunt will be conducted. The review likely will examine recent research on the controversial subject of " resident whales. " Whaling opponents say that the whales, which remain in local waters rather than follow the migration to the Bering Sea, should be protected from hunting. The previous hunt management plan included a provision that hunting would be confined " to the open waters of the Pacific Ocean outside the Tatoosh-Bonilla Line " in order to avoid targeting a resident whale. But Makah Whaling Commission officials have argued that there is no substantive difference between resident whales and other gray whales. Johnson, the tribal chairman, said Saturday that the fisheries service had informed the tribe that the assessment had been finished, though he was unsure when Makah whaling leaders would examine the document. Under the current management plan, the hunt season lasts between May and June and October and November. ***** FROM PROJECT SEAWOLF ------------------------------ For those who haven't heard, the latest edition of Project SeaWolf's electronic newsletter the " Oceanic Navigator " is currently available as an Adobe .pdf download. The Navigator is a must-read for anyone interested in orca whales and other marine wildlife issues related to the Pacific northwest region. Project SeaWolf has historically dealt with items such as the greater Puget Sound oil-spill issues, the Makah whale hunt controversy, the declining SW orca population, and we will expand to addess other wildlife and ecosystem matters as relevent. SeaWolf also affiliates with ECOS -- a website that promotes ecologically responsible adventuresports topics (whale watching, ice climbing, sea kayaking, para-gliding, scuba diving) in the northwest. This issue includes, among other items, the following articles; - update on northwest orca population decline - visit in southern Haro Strait by the northern resident orcas - Bubble feeding observed by southern resident orca whales - Review of Bain-Trites paper citing impact of boats on orcas - Robin Baird's submission on orcas - Killing of grizzly bears in Hyder AK/Stewart, BC The electronic newsletter is a small download (600KB), and contains brilliant graphics and photographs of orcas and other wildlife. The newsletter is available by (free) email request subscription only. Contact projseawolf if you would like to be added to our quarterly distribution list. Project SeaWolf P.O. Box 987, Marysville, WA 98270 http://home.earthlink.net/~projseawolf ***** ANTI-WHALING ACTIVIST TAKES ON NEW ISSUE - Ryan Shapiro, who crewed with ODI this spring, asks that we pass along the following: A dolphin researcher in Hawaii is planning to bring four dolphins, taken from the Atlantic, and display them in a tank at a Maui shopping mall. COMMENTS ARE NEEDED FROM CONCERNED PEOPLE! You can get the full story, and find out what you can do to speak out, at the following web-site: http://www.free-dolphin.org/ Please take a minute to voice your strong opposition to HOLDING DOLPHINS CAPTIVE IN A SHOPPING MALL!!! Tell Maui (politely) that you are against building this new prison for dolphins. Maui County is currently debating whether or not to build a shopping mall/dolphin research/theme park facility on the island of Maui. Please take a minute to write a letter to the Maui County Council at 200 South High Street Wailuku, HI 96793 County.council Fax (808) 270-7686 (Faxing is best) Tell them 1. holding such sentient and highly social animals captive is immoral. 2. that it makes you less likely to want to live on/visit the island. 3. that The Dolphin Institute, which has been stealing dolphins from the wild and experimenting on them for decades now, is a notorious organization that has been cited on numerous occasions for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The intimate nature of the island and its interest in maintaining its status as a prime tourist destination (Maui has been voted " The Number One Island in the World " several years running by Conde' Nast Traveler, the pre-eminent American travel publication) makes this one of those occasions where your voice will be heard. Thank you very much. You can also send us copies of the letter at: The Free Dolphin Coalition of Maui free_dolphin Fax: (208) 485-6457 PO BOX 1547 Kahului, HI 96733 ***** ..................................... http://www.stopwhalekill.org You can change list options to a daily digest or Web-only reading. Sign up at Topica, log in, and change " subscription options. " http://www.topica.com _________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.