Subject: newsclip - Makah Indians and gray whales (fwd)
Mike Williamson (pita@www1.wheelock.edu)
Sun, 6 Sep 1998 09:14:35 -0400 (EDT)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 12:47:54 -0400
From: Dagmar Fertl <Dagmar_Fertl@mms.gov>
Reply-To: Marine Mammals Research and Conservation Discussion
<MARMAM@UVVM.UVIC.CA>
To: MARMAM@UVVM.UVIC.CA
Subject: newsclip - Makah Indians and gray whales
Despite protests, Indian tribe plans to resume whaling
August 29, 1998
From Correspondent Rusty Dornin
NEAH BAY, Washington (CNN) -- For the first time in 70 years, the
Makah Indians will be hunting gray whales.
After October 1, the Makah tribe will have the green light to hunt
five of the mammoth mammals. But as the date approaches, environmental
groups have protested.
Tensions are so high that during the tribe's annual celebration this
weekend the Washington governor called out the National Guard just in
case there was trouble. The 2,000-member tribe lives on a reservation
on the tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula.
But no protesters showed, a relief to many tribal members who say they
want to be left alone to observe what they consider a central part of
their tribal culture.
"It's bringing our tradition back and our culture back to our people
for our children so they can learn (how) our ancestor did it," one
tribe member told CNN.
The International Whaling Commission approved the Makah hunt last
year. The commission allows limited whaling by some native groups that
can successfully demonstrate that whaling is done for cultural or
subsistence reasons, and not for commercial sale of whale meat.
But environmental groups also said the Makah, who haven't hunted
whales in more than seven decades, can no longer claim to subsist on
whale meat.
Critics also say allowing the tribe to kill for cultural reasons and
not for ubsistence will open the door for Japan and Norway to resume
whaling.
"This isn't a hunt that's going to kill just four or five gray
whales," said Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
"The repercussions of this will have an effect on tens of thousands of
whales that will be killed by the Japanese and Norwegians."
Critics like Watson plan to protest the hunt, but the Coast Guard
wants protesters to stay at least 500 yards from hunters.
Other anti-whaling groups and a Washington congressman who seek
to stop the hunt threatened in response to include the Coast Guard
in their lawsuit.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has rammed and sunk pirate
whaling ships.
On the Makah hunt, the society says it won't go near the canoes.
Instead, the group plans to lay down a curtain of sound that will
frighten gray whales away from the area.