Urgent appeal to get comments in by 2/16

[Guest guest]

Help Stop Government's Efforts to Resume Whaling by the Makah Tribe

 

Despite overwhelming national and international opposistion, the U.S.

government is aiding the Makah tribe of northwest Washington in its

efforts to resume whaling. In 1999, the Makah tribe brutally harpooned

and slaughtered its first gray whale in nearly 80 years under a U.S.

government approved process that was subsequently deemed illegal by the

9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Far from teaching the government a lesson,

it has responded to the court's order by publishing a new Draft

Environmental Assessment which contains many of the same significant

inadequacies that were in its original Environmental Assessment. It is

clear that the U.S. government is only interested in facilitating

whaling by the Makah regardless of the short or long-term environmental

impacts associated with this killing and in complete disregard for the

interests of the majority of Americans who strongly oppose whaling.

 

The Draft Environmental Assessment is woefully inadequate. It fails to

evaluate the documented decline in gray whale food supplies in the

Bering Sea, to analyze the impact of global warming on the quantity and

quality of gray whale habitat, to properly consider the impact of

whaling on resident gray whales in the northwest Washington area,

ignores public safety threats associated with the use of a

military-style 50 caliber rifle to kill whales, to consider the

significance of the precedence caused by Makah whaling, and otherwise

ignores compelling evidence which supports a ban on whale hunting.

 

It is imperative that anyone who cares about whales take a few minutes

to prepare a letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service opposing

the resumption of whaling by the Makah tribe. Send your letter to:

 

Ms. Cathy E. Campbell

NOAA/NMFS

Office of Protected Resources

13th Floor

1315 East-West Highway

Silver Spring, MD 20910

Fax: (301) 713-0376

 

Your letter must be received by the NMFS on or before February 16, 2001

to be considered. The NMFS will not consider letters sent via electronic

mail.

 

In preparing your letter, please consider making the following points.

Or, feel free to use the sample letter provided below and adapt it into

your own words.

 

* The Draft Environmental Assessment is entirely inadequate failing to

justify the purpose and need for the action, disclose critical

information about the environmental impacts of whaling, and avoiding any

comprehensive and legally required evaluation of the direct, indirect,

and cumulative impacts of the action on the gray whale population.

 

* The government has ignored evidence of a decline in gray whale food

supplies, the adverse impact of global warming on the quality and

quantity of gray whale habitat, and has ignored a significant increase

in gray whale mortalities and decrease in gray whale calf production

documented in 1999.

 

* The government has failed to disclose critical information about the

environmental impacts of whaling by the Makah, the precedent that such

whaling could set for other native groups to resume whaling, and

critical legal information, thereby preventing the public from

understanding the environmental consequences of this action and

preparing substantive and informed public comment.

 

* Tell the government that you support Alternative 4 - the no action, no

whaling alternative.

 

Thank you for helping to stop the resumption of whaling by the Makah

tribe. Please encourage your friends, family, colleagues, and associates

to help stop the slaughter as well.

 

==========================

 

Sample Letter:

 

February ___, 2001

 

Ms. Cathy E. Campbell

NOAA/NMFS

Office of Protected Resources

13th Floor

1315 East-West Highway

Silver Spring, MD 20910

 

Dear Ms. Campbell:

 

I am writing to express my unalterable opposition to the U.S.

government's ongoing efforts to facilitate a resumption in whaling by

the Makah tribe in northwest Washington. As scientists learn more about

the substantial intelligence and sentience of whales, including the gray

whale, it is appalling that the government would be engaged in efforts

to allow the Makah to slaughter these magnificent animals.

 

The government's Draft Environmental Assessment is woefully inadequate

and contains many of the same deficiencies as were found in its original

Environmental Assessment published in 1997. The government has failed to

explain how the Makah meet U.S. and International Whaling Commission

regulations pertaining to aboriginal subsistence whaling. It is clear

from the evidence, in fact, that the Makah cannot meet this definition

as they can demonstrate no continued traditional dependence on whaling

and because whaling is not essential to meet the tribe's nutritional or

subsistence needs. The government has also completely failed to discuss

the declining status of the gray whale food supplies and the impact of

global warming on the quality and quantity of gray whale habitat.

Furthermore, the government has apparently elected to ignore the

significant increase in gray whale mortality and decrease in gray whale

births in 1999 which may signal trouble for the future of the gray

whale. Finally, the government fails to discuss the impact of whaling on

individual whales. I don't believe that the eight minutes that it

allegedly took the Makah to kill the gray whale in 1999 was at all

humane and the suffering caused by such killing must be considered by

the government.

 

I also am concerned about the precedent that Makah whaling may set for

additional whaling by other native groups and, ultimately, to a

worldwide resumption of whaling. Considering what the world's whale

species have been subject to in the past and the known intelligence and

sentience of these creatures, there is no justification for whaling by a

single country or by a single native group. While the government may be

convinced that the Makah have no commercial interest in whaling, I

believe that both the Makah and the government are using the aboriginal

needs argument as a precursor to the eventual decision to permit the

Makah to engage in whaling for commercial purposes.

 

For all of these reasons, I strongly support Alternative 4 - the

no-kill/no whaling option. I strongly encourage the government to adopt

alternative 4 as its final resolution of this issue to protect the gray

whale as is consistent with my interests and the interests of the

majority of Americans.

 

Sincerely,