Expanded domestic whale hunt possible

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FROM WASHINGTON CITIZENS' COASTAL ALLIANCE

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U.S. SETS STAGE FOR WHALING THROUGH '07

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5-year Makah plan outlined by agency

 

By Brenda Hanrahan

Peninsula Daily News

November 27, 2001

 

NEAH BAY- The National Marine Fisheries Service has begun a lengthy process

that could lead to a new five-year Makah whaling quota.

 

The agency published an announcement in the Federal Register on Monday that

it will conduct an environmental assessment of the effects of issuing a

subsistence quota for gray whales to the Makah tribe between 2003 and 2007.

 

" This is a very preliminary step in a very lengthy process, " said Brian

Gorman, spokesman for National Marine Fisheries Service's Northwest regional

office in Seattle. " This is basically a public notice of an intent to

publish an assessment. "

 

Gorman said he expects the environmental assessment to be completed before

the 54th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission in May.

 

The Makah were awarded a quota to take up to 20 whales between 1998 and 2002

under an arrangment with the U.S. government and the whaling commission.

 

They have killed only one- on May 17, 1999, when a Makah whaling crew used

new and old methods: a harpoon thrown from a cedar canoe and rifle shots

fired from a motor boat.

 

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.

 

A new environmental assessment last summer also allows the tribe to hunt

so-called " resident " gray whales through 2002 as well as grays migrating

between their summer feeding grounds off Alaska and birthing lagoons in Baja

California.

 

Local reaction to Monday's announcement was mixed.

 

" It is what we expected to happen, " said Gordon Smith, vice chairman of the

Makah Tribal Council. " We intend to try to get another quota for the next

period and plan to exercise our treaty rights. "

 

Anti-whaling activist Chuck Owens of Joyce, co-founder of the Peninsula

Citizens for the Protection of Whales, said: " This continuing determination

to slaughter our local gray whales will bring nothing but grief, division

and economic hardship to our Peninsula. Whale watching is saving coastal

economies worldwide. Whale killing will surely have the opposite effect. "

 

Gorman said the National Marine Fisheries Service is evaluating four

alternatives:

 

Alternative 1 includes granting the Makah a quota of five whales per year

over five years " with restrictions that would allow a limited hunt on the

gray whale summer feeding aggregation. "

 

Alternative 2 includes granting the tribe a quota of five whales per year

over five years " with restrictions to target the hunt on migrating whales. "

 

Alternative 3 includes granting the tribe a quota of five whales over five

years " without time or area restrictions. "

 

Alternative 4 includes granting the Makah no quota.

 

The National Marine Fisheries Service is soliciting comments and information

as part of its analysis. Only written comments submitted by mail and

postmarked by January 15 will be accepted.

 

The address is Chief Marine Mammal Division (F/PR2), Office of Protected

Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, 13th Floor, 1315 East-West

Hwy., Silver Spring, MD 20910. The envelope should be marked on the outside,

" Comments on Gray Whale Analysis. " Comments will not be accepted if

submitted via e-mail or the Internet, Gorman said.

 

The entire announcement in the Federal Register can be found on the Internet

at

http://frwebgate4.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=84270415856+

0+0+0 & WAISaction=retrieve.

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