Hunt Update

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===== A message from the 'makahwhaling' discussion list =====

 

FROM WASHINGTON CITIZENS' COASTAL ALLIANCE

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MAKAH RULING DELAYED " WEEKS OR MONTHS " DUE TO ENORMOUS PUBLIC INPUT!

 

In the first article, please note NMFS spokesman Brian Gorman's obviously

biased statements regarding the EA process. You might think that Brian

isn't, well, very bright to say those things, but give him credit: he also

wears ugly suits...

 

File his comments away for later use; namely, to enjoy watching him

explain them to a federal judge and state how THIS E.A. was " unbiased! "

 

Second item: Further info on the petition to relist the gray whale under the

Endangered Species Act, then an informative article on the gray whale

migration.

*****

 

 

 

U.S. DELAYS IMPACT REPORT ON MAKAH WHALING

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By Austin Ramzy

Peninsula Daily News

March 29, 2001

 

The National Marine Fisheries Service does not plan to release a final

environmental assessment on the makah tribe's gray whale hunt before the end

of the month, a spokesman said Wednesday.

 

The federal agency previously indicated the report would be issued in March.

But that has been pushed back, mainly due to the large number of comments

the Fisheries Service has received since the draft assessment was released

in January, Fisheries spokesman Brian Gorman said.

 

" It will certainly be weeks and probably be months before we have some kind

of environmental assessment and management plan in place to govern the

hunt, " Gorman said.

 

Currently, there are no rules in place to manage a whale hunt. But as the

main body of the northward gray whale migration begins to move past

Washington, the Makah appear content to wait. " I think right now we're just

waiting for the final assessment to come out, " tribal Vice Chairman Gordon

Smith said.

 

HUNT MANAGEMENT PLAN

Once the final assessment is released, the Fisheries Service will use it to

negotiate a hunt management plan with the Makah Whaling Commission. The

assessment, which examines the effect of the Makah hunt on the population of

 

the Pacific gray whales, was ordered by a federal appeals court last June.

 

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reviewed a lawsuit filed

by then-U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Langley, a Makah tribe member and a

handful of animal rights groups.

 

The court ruled that by makaing a commitment to support the Makah hunt

before it completed the study, the Fisheries Service " failed to take a 'hard

look' at the environmental consequences of (its) actions. "

 

But the new document could result in fewer limitations on the hunt, Gorman

said. The draft assessment released in January included options that would

reduce the restrictions on previous hunts.

 

" One of the ironies of the lawsuit is that it will lead to a new

environmental assessment that may result in a management plan much less

restrictive than the one that triggered the original lawsuit, " Gorman said.

 

POSSIBILITIES FOR FUTURE HUNTS

The draft assessment listed four alternatives for future hunts:

 

-The federal government grants the Makah a quota of five whales a year. Like

previous agreements, the Makah would hunt west of the mouth of the Strait of

Juan de Fuca during the whale's migration period.

 

-The quota would remain at five whales a year, but with a limited hunt

outside the December through June migration period. This alternative

addressed the tribe's interest in conducting summer hunts in the Strait,

where the water is much calmer.

 

-No restrictions on when and where the tribe can hunt, as long as the

whalers stay within thefive whale annual limit and within their " usual and

accustomed " hunting areas.

 

-No whaling quota for the tribe.

 

During a Feb. 1 hearing in Seattle, many Makah endorsed the third option.

 

But whaling opponents argued for blocking the hunt citing human safety

concerns and threats to resident whales, which stay in Washington waters

rather than follow the entire length of the species' migration.

 

The Makah's 1855 treaty with the federal government assures the tribe's

right to hunt whales.

 

The tribe stopped whaling in the 1920s as the whale population plummeted.

But with the gray whale population rebounding, the tribe resumed the hunt in

1998.

 

On May 17, 1999, a Makah whaling crew used new and old methods- a harpoon

thrown from a cedar canoe and rifle shots fired from a motor boat- to kill

the tribe's first whale in 70 years.

*****

 

 

 

FURTHER INFO ON GRAY WHALE ESA PETITION

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For Immediate Release Contact: D.J. Schubert (602) 547-8537

March 28, 2001 Sue Arnold 011-61-2-

66-843-769

Mike Markarian (301) 585-2591

 

GRAY WHALES NEED PROTECTION:

GROUPS ASK GOVERNMENT TO RE-LIST POPULATION

UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT

 

Washington, D.C.: Today, Australians for Animals (AFA) and The Fund for

Animals (The Fund) filed a petition with the government asking it to list

the eastern North Pacific or " California " gray whale population as a

threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The listing is essential to protect gray whales and their habitat from

increasing threats including aboriginal whaling, global warming, El-Nino

events, benthic or bottom trawling, and offshore oil and gas development.

 

The 44-page petition provides scientific evidence of these and other threats

and their impact on gray whales and their habitat. The direct, indirect,

and cumulative impact of these threats have drastically altered the ecology

of the Bering and Chukchi Seas resulting in a substantial decline in benthic

amphipods -- small tube-building creatures that live on the ocean floor who

are the primary prey of the gray whale. Without access to adequate food

supplies, gray whale mortality has increased and births have declined

substantially. The number of stranded whales reported in 2000 was 291

compared to only 250 between 1990 and 1998 while the number of gray whales

calves declined from 1520 in 1997 to only 282 in 2000.

 

" The gray whale is like a giant canary in a very large coal mine, " claims

Sue Arnold, President of Australians for Animals. " The documented decline

in the gray whale is indicative of a collapse in Arctic ecosystems which the

U.S. government has largely ignored. Unless the government acknowledges and

addresses the threat of global warming, eliminates bottom trawling, and

provides ESA protection for gray whales and their habitat, the population

will be extirpated, " adds Ms. Arnold.

 

The gray whale was nearly exterminated by 1880. The population was

previously protected under the ESA from 1970 until 1994 when the government

prematurely delisted the population primarily for political reasons. The

loss of ESA protection in 1994 has eliminated any meaningful protection to

gray whale habitat. Deficiencies in other laws, as described in the

petition, further threaten gray whales and their habitat. The petition also

challenges the government's overly optimistic gray whale population

estimates documenting that such estimates are uncertain, unreliable, and are

based on insufficient information and flawed formulas.

 

" The government can no longer rely on fuzzy math to deceive the world into

believing that the gray whale is safe as the evidence contained in the

petition demonstrates, " assert Michael Markarian, Executive Vice-President

of The Fund for Animals. " It's time that gray whales and their habitat

receive protection from harpoons, warming seas, bottom trawlers, and oil

spills by relisting the population under the ESA, " concludes Markarian.

 

The Fund for Animals is a national animal protection organization

headquartered in New York City. Australians for Animals is a national

animal protection organization in Australia based in Byron Bay, New South

Wales. The Fund and AFA have previously combined efforts to secure a

threatened listing for the koala under the ESA and successfully sued the

government to stop the Makah gray whale hunt in 1999. Other groups

supporting the petition include The Great Whales Foundation, Cetacean

Society International, Sea Sanctuary, Inc., and the Humane Society of

Canada.

 

A full copy of the petition and executive summary can be obtained at

www.fund.org or sarnold

*****

 

 

 

GRAY WHALES MOVING NORTH

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By Austin Ramzy

Peninsula Daily News

March 29, 2001

 

The northbound gray whale migration will soon be in full swing off

Washington's shores.

 

" They're doing their thing off the west coast of Washington state, " said

John Calambokidis, senior research biologist for Cascadia Research in

Olympia.

 

The peak of the whale migration passed northern California about a week ago,

Calmbokidis said, and whales have been spotted near Port Townsend, Whidbey

Island and southern Puget Sound in the past two weeks.

 

Gray whales undergo the longest migration of any mammal, traveling 10,000

miles from their summer waters in the Bering and Chukchi seas to the mating

and calving lagoons of Baja, Mexico. They travel north again in the spring.

 

But not all whales travel the full migration, and some stay in Washington

waters for extended periods.

 

Seven years ago gray whales were taken off the endangered species list. The

most recent National Marine Fisheries Service estimate of the whale

population is 26,600.

 

But the last two years have seen high mortality and low birth rates for gray

whales, Fisheries officials said.

 

In 1999, there were 273 whales reported stranded on the North American

coast- five to 13 times higher than the counts from 1995 to 1998.

 

An estimated 250 strandings were reported as of May 1 last year, Fisheries

officials said. Strandings were also high in Washington.

 

" In Washington the average is four or five a year, " Calambokidis said.

" There has been 24 to 48 each year for the last two years. "

 

But it's too early to determine if that trend is continuing this year, he

said, because most of the strandings have occurred in April or June.

 

Scientists are considering several factors that may have contributed to the

number of gray whale deaths including oceanographic changes in the northern

seas and chemical contaminants in the animals' bodies.

 

A second peak of the whale migration will happen in the coming months as

mothers with calves move through Washington waters.

*****

 

 

 

STUPIDEST QUOTE OF THE YEAR

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" In every culture a good killer is a good man. "

 

Faeroese whaler Hans Hermmmansen

July 19, 2000

*****