Good news!

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

 

FROM WASHINGTON CITIZENS' COASTAL ALLIANCE

 

 

Folks, we'll obviously have more for you (hopefully later today) on this

huge story, but since the Fund has posted this on their web-site

(http://fund.org/library/documentViewer.asp?ID=567 & table=documents), we

wanted to get the news to YOU!

 

 

 

WHALE ADVOCATES SUE TO STOP EXPANDED MAKAH HUNT

 

The Fund for Animals

January 10, 2002

 

SEATTLE, WA -- Today, The Fund for Animals, The Humane Society of the United

States, and others filed a second legal challenge in U.S. District Court

over the killing of gray whales by the Makah tribe off the coast of

Washington. Despite a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the previous

environmental study authorizing the whale hunt violated federal law, the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine

Fisheries Service have actually expanded the hunt by now allowing hunting

close to shore and any time during the year, thus making it much more likely

that summer resident whales would be killed and greatly increasing the

threat to human safety. Moreover, the Makah have requested $1.9 million from

the federal government to continue whaling activities.

 

The plaintiffs argue that the agencies have again violated the National

Environmental Policy Act by failing to adequately study the ways in which

the Makah whale hunt could adversely affect the environment, especially

because the expanded hunt poses an even greater risk to the area's resident

gray whales and human safety. The plaintiffs also argue that the agencies'

authorization of the whale hunt violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act,

which expressly prohibits whaling, while creating an exemption for Alaskan

tribes but not for the Makah.

 

Said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The Fund for Animals,

" Whaling may have been a tradition in the past, but there is nothing

traditional about cruelly shooting these majestic creatures with

high-powered rifles. The government has ignored hundreds of public comments

opposing the whale hunt, has thumbed its nose at the court by ignoring its

instructions to produce an unbiased study, and is fleecing American

taxpayers to promote whaling. "

 

According to Dr. Naomi Rose, marine mammal scientist for The Humane Society

of the United States, " The government is not applying good science when it

dismisses the importance of the summer resident whales to the Puget Sound

ecosystem. Resident whales may be genetically distinct, and may play a vital

role in the local ecology of the region. "

 

The plaintiffs are represented by the public interest law firm Meyer &

Glitzenstein.

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