Makah Gray Whale Hunt To Be First Step In Commercial Enterprise (from Sea Shepher Conservation Society) US government documents reveal tribe’s planned kills of porpoises, minke, whales & sea lions; confirm Japanese, Norwegian involvement. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has obtained documentation revealing the plans of the Makah Tribal Council of Neah Bay, Washington, to start an industry based on the slaughter of marine mammals, with Japan and Norway as their clients. The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Sea Shepherd Pacific Northwest Coordinator Michael Kundu, were received on October 20, pursuant to a request filed in mid-August. They date from the spring of 1995, when the Makah first approached government agencies about their intent to hunt California gray whales for "cultural and ceremonial" purposes. An e-mail dated April 3,1995, from Michael Tillman, Deputy Commissioner at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center of the National Marine Fisheries Service, to NMFS colleague Margaret Hayes and severaf others, relates a conversation between Hayes and Makah legal representative John Arum, saying "Maggie informed me that Arum had told her that Japanese interests had approached the Makahs about selling whale meat to them. So I wasn’t surprised when he asked me generally about commercial sale." A memo dated April 27, 1995, headed "Notes from the discussion of treaty rights during the April 1995 Pacific Scientific Review Group meeting" and hand-addressed "To: MFT (Michael F. Tillman) From: RLB (Robert L. Brownell, NMFS Region 4)" reads in part: "The Makah intend to harvest gray whales (starting in 1995), harbor seals (5 already taken), California sea lions, minke whales, small cetaceans such as harbor porpoise and Dall’s porpoise, and potentially, in the future, sea otters. The Makah are planning to operate a processing plant so as to sell to markets outside the U.S. The Makah have started discussions with Japan and Norway about selling their whale products to both countries. The plant could be used to process the catches of other tribes as well. The Makah and other tribes plan to reduce local populations of harbor seals to one-half to one-third of current population.... There would be no limit placed on catches of California sea lions...." One week later, Makah Tribal Council Chairman Hubert Markishtum sent a formal proposal to the U.S. State Department and the National Oceanics and Atmospherics Administration notifying them of the Makah’s proposal to re-establish "a ceremonial and subsistence whale hunt" as "a catalyst which would allow us to instill in our young people the traditional values which have held our people together over the centuries." "The true nature of the Makah's proposed 'cultural' whale hunt is now beyond dispute," said Paul Watson, president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. "This is the wedge to open up a future large-scale factory killing enterprise, and the Makah's partners in the federal government knew it." Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society
Protesters try to block whale hunt Armed with a steel harpoon, a .50-caliber assault rifle and official permission to conduct the first legal hunt for a gray whale in American waters in more than 50 years, members of a small Indian tribe gathered Thursday on a beach on Washington’s rugged Olympic Peninsula to start an adventure intended to resurrect the glory and traditions of their whale hunting forefathers. But before the eight-man crew could even launch its 32-foot cedar canoe into the steely waters of the Pacific, the Makah Indians had to contend with a modern-day flotilla of animal-rights protesters, themselves equipped with a Norwegian-built submarine painted to resemble a whale and an underground speaker system that the protesters said was capable of scaring off a whale and saving its life. And the U.S. Coast Guard, intent on preventing the groups from clashing with each other, kept close watch on a scene that has posed an exquisite dilemma for many environmental groups. Finding themselves caught between the save-the-whales ethos represented by the protesters and the respect for centuries-old American Indian traditions that the Makah say their whale hunt is all about, many leading environmental groups have taken no position at all on the matter. Keith Johnson, head of the tribal whaling commission, said the Indians would set out on the hunt "when it’s right." Though no living Makah has ever hunted a whale, the Indian nation here at the very northwestern tip of the continental United States was once renowned for its prowess, and it is the only Indian tribe specifically guaranteed the right to hunt whales under an 1855 treaty with the American government. Supported by the Clinton administration and a $310,000 grant from the Commerce Department, the group won an exemption from the worldwide whaling ban last year and, as of Thursday, has the right to take up to five gray whales per year in the next five years. Though critics fear the Makah hunt will open the door to commercial whaling here and elsewhere, the Indians insist they plan to use the whale meat, oil and blubber only for their own food and for ceremonial purposes. "The hunt is the missing link, the thing that brings us full circle to our traditions," said Marcy Parker, the Makah tribal council’s vice chairwoman. "We’re ocean families, whaling families. So much of what we are all about comes from the ocean, and we feel a deep spiritual need to do this." Though the Makahs live in a spectacular forested setting hard by the roaring sea and at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca it is a community racked by joblessness and tainted by the plagues of modem life, such as drugs. Many here say that the whale hunt has succeeded in instilling a new sense of purpose in the lives of the young men selected for the hunt, and in the Makah nation at large. Some tribal elders who can remember the taste of whale meat are not sure the hunt is a good idea. "I admire the young people for taking on the challenge, but I just hope to God that no one is hurt," said 82-year-old Hildred Ides, whose grandfather was a whale hunter. "Going for a whale is a very serious thing, a very dangerous thing." Her 88-year-old cousin, Irene Ward ides, nodded her head in agreement as they sat watching dancers in the community hall here one recent evening. "I wonder if they really know what they are doing," she said. "The whale can get awfully mad. The whales know they’re being chased. They know they’re being hunted." Indeed, the gray whale, which can weigh as much as 40 tons and grow much longer than the hunter’s canoe, was called the "devil fish" by 19th century whalers for its propensity to thrash and fight when attacked. Conversely, when not under attack, the whales can be inordinately friendly and are known to swim and play alongside boats, making them a popular tourist sight all along their annual migration route from Baja California to the Bering Sea. "In 1995, all of the crew on board the conservation ship Edward Abbey were privileged to meet a young, friendly whale We named Buddy," says an alert posted on the World Wide Web by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a Southern California-based group that has taken the lead in opposing the Makah hunt and prides itself in having scuttled whaling missions around the world. "This October," adds the alert "Buddy may be blasted to death against those cliffs, near the reservation at Neah Bay."The young men of the Makah nation, who have been training for months and have traveled as far as Russia to learn whaling techniques describe the hunt in sacred terms and say it is a powerful way to connect with prior generations of Makah hunters and with the group’s traditions, which include hundreds of songs and dances oriented around the hunt. They defend their planned use of powerful rifle to finish off the whale once it is harpooned as a modern protective measure that would be sanctioned by their ancestors.
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