AP story on Makah gray whale hunt DEA

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Agency to evaluate impact of Makah whaling

January 13, 2001

 

by Peggy Andersen

The Associated Press

 

SEATTLE -- The federal government issued a draft environmental assessment

yesterday for the Makah Indians' gray-whale hunt, renewing controversy over

the tribe's attempt to revive a centuries-old tradition.

 

The evaluation - the second one the National Marine Fisheries Service has

prepared for the hunt - was ordered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

in San Francisco. A three-judge panel ruled last summer the agency had

violated the National Environmental Policy Act by approving a

hunt-management plan before completing its study of the hunt's impact.

 

The draft of this second study concludes that the Pacific gray-whale

population, estimated at 26,600, is " more than likely larger than before

commercial exploitation in the 1840s, and may be at the carrying capacity of

the ecosystem, " said fisheries-service spokesman Brian Gorman in Seattle.

 

The assessment also outlines four whale-hunt alternatives - including no

whaling at all.

 

The agency suspended the hunts last summer after the appeals-court ruling.

There were two unsuccessful family hunts last spring, Tribal Chairman Greig

Arnold said.

 

So far, just one whale has been killed - in May 1999 - after furious

protests by anti-whaling activists at the tribe's remote reservation in Neah

Bay, Clallam County.

 

The environmental assessment " just tries to look at everything, even if it's

not politically, financially or socially possible, " Gorman said. It " looks

at all reasonable alternatives and then assesses their environmental

impact. "

 

Public comment will be taken Feb. 1 in Seattle as part of the agency

evaluation. Agency officials hope to complete the final document by March,

Gorman said.

 

" We expect a lot of people, none of whom will be remotely shy about telling

us what they think, " Gorman said.

 

He's correct, a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society spokesman said. " We will

certainly hold their feet to the fire (to ensure) ... an unbiased

environmental assessment, " Andrew Christie said.

 

The tribe is happy that the draft is ready, tribal attorney Jon Arum said.

 

" We're hoping that we can get through the public comment period and ... get

a new cooperative agreement and get back on track, " Arum said.

 

The draft outlines four hunt scenarios:

 

-Allow whaling to proceed as before, with a maximum annual quota of five

whales and with hunts allowed only during the whales' migrations between

summer feeding grounds in Alaska and winter breeding grounds in Mexico.

 

-Same as the first, but with some hunting allowed outside the migration

periods and inside the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This option would allow

hunting of so-called " resident whales. "

 

-No restrictions on when and where the tribe could hunt, but a five-a-year

quantity limit.

 

-No whaling quota for the Makah.

 

None of these options is a " preferred alternative, " a NMFS news release

said.

 

The tribe would clearly prefer the third alternative, Arum said.

 

Activists prefer the fourth, Christie said.

 

The Makah hunted whales for generations until the 1920s, when commercial

whaling had decimated the whale population.

 

The tribe - the only U.S. tribe whose treaty specifically allows whaling -

moved to resume the hunts in 1994, after gray whales were removed from the

Endangered Species List. With federal government backing, the tribe received

a five-whale annual quota from the International Whaling Commission in 1997.

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