Marine Mammals and Alternatives to Whaling

Update on Makah Whale Hunt April 2000

 

 

 

 

 

The first Makah whale hunt was a tribal affair carried out together by hunters from different whaling families.

This Spring, the hunt is different. It is a family hunt. Five separate whaling families have each assembled teams and have begun training. Each has it's eye on the opportunity to be her first family to hunt and kill a California Gray Whale in over seventy years.

Family hunts were the traditional hunting groups for the Makah.

On Monday April 17th the Makah Council issued a whaling permit to the Paul Parker family, one of the five families whose team consists of some members from last May's hunt. The team has been hunting from suport motor boats and canoe.

On Tuesday, the team began its hunt, but no whales were harpooned. A collision between a protest and Coastguard boat resulted in arrests and injuries.

On Thursday April 20th, 2000 the team again took to the water at dawn. This time they harpooned a gray whale, but the harpoon didn't stick and the whale escaped. The whale's evasion was lost in the melee that followed immediately. A young woman on a jet ski swept by the canoe, spraying the team with water. After she passed the canoe, she was run over by a coast guard zodiac, and subsequently hospitalized. The canoe was immediately towed further out to sea where the hunt continues.

 

Sustainable Ecosystems Institute regrets the violence and injuries that have surrounded this hunt. We support the Treaty Rights of the Makah in full. But we continue to hope that the Tribe will engage in exploring alternatives to whaling that will meet their cultural, economic, and ecological goals.

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