Guest guest Posted June 12, 2001 Report Share Posted June 12, 2001 ===== A message from the 'makahwhaling' discussion list ===== FROM WASHINGTON CITIZENS' COASTAL ALLIANCE -------------------------------- MAKAH E.A. IN FINAL STAGES? (Please forward widely) We are told that NMFS will soon be collecting the signatures needed to complete the Makah whaling environmental assessment. At this point, no one outside of NMFS knows what the final outcome will be. However, there IS one thing that YOU can do: We are asking you to write a letter to Donald Evans, the Secretary of the Department of Commerce. (The Department of Commerce is the parent agency of NMFS, and Secretary Evans holds a Cabinet-level position) A sample letter is included below, but please take the time to personalize it, so as to avoid a " form letter overload " in his office. Feel free to e-mail him at devans, but PLEASE ALSO WRITE A SNAIL MAIL LETTER and drop it in the U.S. mail (His address is below). And be sure to get your friends and family involved, as well! Secretary Evans is ultimately responsible for giving a " go " or " no go " on whatever NMFS has come up with, so we want to let him know that there are a LOT of people keeping a close eye on this situation. Keep your letters POLITE and PROFESSIONAL, as we are simply asking him to give a " hard, close look " at the Makah EA. In other words, give the man a chance to make the right choice. This is a fairly important campaign, folks, and we thank you in advance for making the effort to WRITE! Here's the sample letter... Secretary Donald L. Evans Office of the Secretary Room 5854 U.S. Department of Commerce 14th & Constitution Ave. NW Washington, DC 20230 Dear Secretary Evans: I am writing in regard to the pending Environmental Assessment (EA) being prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on the possibility of more whale killing by the Makah Tribe of Washington state. I am concerned at the appalling waste of tax dollars being used to kill whales in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary by the Makah tribe, and find it unconscionable that the current administration might actually be considering approval for more of this horrific activity. To date, it is estimated that approximately $5 million of U.S. taxpayer money has been used- directly and indirectly- to assist the Makah Tribe in illegally killing whales in Washington state. I urge you to take a closer look at this situation and demand accountability by the responsible agencies- not only financially, but factually. You will find more detail on the outrageous waste of tax dollars at the web-site of 'Citizens Against Government Waste'- http://www.cagw.org/mediacenter/wastewatch/search/ww-00-06-b.htm My concerns include the following: - The whale killing activities by the Makah Tribe have never been sanctioned by the International Whaling Commission, a body of which the U.S. is a member. Even though NMFS maintains that such approval has been given, they can not show a single document which proves this claim. - The killing has already set an international precedent, with numerous countries now clamoring for their " right " to kill whales for cultural reasons. - The Makah Tribe continues to state that they may begin commercial whaling at any time, much to the embarassment of NMFS, which continues to claim that the Makah Tribe will not. Someone is not telling the truth here, Secretary Evans, and as an American, I do not want this country to return to the dark days of commercial whaling in any way, shape or form. It should also be noted that the resumption of commercial whaling would be in violation of a lengthy list of state, federal and international laws. - Evidence of public opposition to the Makah whale killing activities is well-documented, with the most recent poll (by the McLaughlin Group) indicating that over 82% of the American public opposes it. - The United States' credibility and past efforts at protecting whales has been seriously undermined by this debacle, and must be restored. -You should also be made aware that several organizations are presently preparing to take this Environmental Assessment back to court on various issues, many of which were brought to light in 'Metcalf v. Daley.' Your predecessor, William Daley, lost that case. Under this unfortunate scenario, the Department of Commerce would be forced to defend a Clinton/Gore sponsored illegal whale hunt, hardly a fortuitous situation for your agency, which, at the very least, deserves a " clean slate " to work with at this point of the Bush administration. I respectfully request that you review the facts surrounding this situation. The whale killing activities of the Makah tribe have had a tremendous negative impact on the communities of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, and I fervently hope that you- and the present administration- will take a close, hard look at this ongoing debacle. Please help in restoring a sense of peace to our communities, and I beg you to stop the hemorrhage of my tax dollars into unaccountable coffers. Respectfully, ***** FROM U.S. CITIZENS AGAINST WHALING --------------------------- As most of you know, the IWC is meeting in 5 weeks and we have received the disturbing news that Japan is gaining momentum towards approval of the Revised Management Scheme. Commercial whaling is getting closer and it's up to us to stop it. Last summer I put together information packets on the Makah whale hunt and the Revised Management Scheme and sent them out to every Senator in the United States. The responses were shocking. " I never heard of the Revised Management Scheme. " It's a sad statement when our own elected officials don't know that commercial whaling is so dangerously close. One sympathetic Senator has launched his own investigation and has been meeting with pro and anti-RMS activists. He in turn wrote a letter to then President Clinton asking him to withdraw US support for the RMS. Your elected officials need to hear from you (and loudly) that the RMS is totally unacceptable! Our own Senator Murray's office stated that she will not get involved in " other committees' work. " Well, this means we need to work harder to get her to understand that it IS her problem. Therefore, we need the support and help of the public. Many of you have offered to pass out our information fliers in your area. I appreciate both your enthusiasm and patience. We have made a great flier with color photos, but we went to the printers and although they are giving us a discount it's still too expensive. We are making changes from color to black and white to make copying easy and cost effective. Those who have offered to pass them out in your area, my goal is to have them to you by the end of next week. We do need a little help to cover copying expenses. We want to print up thousands of our booklets. Each booklet is 8 pages long. It covers the RMS, Japan, Caribbean, plight of Puget Sound Orcas, Manatee troubles and more. This is definitely a grassroots effort to educate the masses and gain their support. We need your help though to pull this off. We have some places that will let us copy free if we bring our own paper. Other places give us discounts. Ideally we would love to raise enough money to buy our own little copy machine ($650 for copier and toner cartridge) which would save us ALOT of money in the long run. If you can send paper (Great White copy paper- recycled) or donation towards copier/copying, send to: US Citizens Against Whaling 20105 Sunnyside Dr. N #E304 Shoreline, WA 98133 Let's all work a little harder to stop commercial whaling in it's tracks. The cost for the whales is way to high to pay! THANKS Sandra Abels U.S. Citizens Against Whaling " Saving Our Oceans One Whale At A Time " www.usagainstwhaling.org ***** ICELAND REJOINS INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION - Reykjavik, Iceland - Iceland has rejoined the International Whaling Commission, nine years after quitting the organisation in protest, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. Even as it came back into the fold of the IWC, the government reiterated its opposition to the group's 1986 global ban on commercial whaling. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the government feels it can best influence the whaling debate from within the IWC, which is hosting an international convention on whaling regulations in London next month. " There are signs within the IWC that support is increasing for sustainable whaling in some form, " it said. The island nation of 250,000 people grudgingly stopped its hunts in 1989, three years after the IWC moratorium was enacted to protect the giant sea mammals. However, in 1992, the same year Norway announced plans to resume its own commercial whale hunts, Iceland quit the whaling commission, claiming the organisation set up to manage whaling had become one devoted only to preventing all hunts. That view was re-expressed by the Foreign Ministry. It called the IWC " a non-whaling commission rather than a whaling commission. Regrettably, this development has not been undone yet. " Iceland's parliament passed a resolution in 1999 to resume hunting, saying the country had the right to use all marine resources within its territorial waters. But Iceland has yet to restart the hunts, mostly due to fears that it could adversely affect the country's fish exports. Several supermarket chains in Europe and North America refused to sell Icelandic fish when it was a whaling nation. Norway is the only country that hunts whales for profit. It is not bound by the ban because commission rules allow its members to reject its rulings. - Sapa-AP June 11, 2001 ***** QUOTE OF THE WEEK -------------------- " Once we accept or even suspect that humans are not the only animals with personalities, not the only animals capable of rational thoughts and problem solving ... and above all, not the only animals to know mental as well as physical suffering, we become less arrogant, a little less sure that we have the inalienable right to make use of other life forms in any way we please. " Dr. Jane Goodall ***** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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