Whale hunters stay ashore as tribal season opens
Story-Date: 07:08 p.m. PST Thursday , October 1, 1998

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Whale hunters stay ashore as tribal season opens


By Tom Banse

NEAH BAY, Wash. (Reuters) - The first day of a tribal whale hunting season,
which some anti-whaling activists have vowed to disrupt, passed without
incident Thursday as the Makah Indians kept their harpoons in storage.

As a diverse flotilla of protest ships waited offshore under the watchful
eye of the U.S. Coast Guard, indications were that tribal whalers would not
set out in their dugout canoe for days if not weeks.

The whale "is going to come to us when it's time," said Makah Whaling
Commission chair Keith Johnson.

He apparently was referring to the tribe's agreement to hunt only migrating
Pacific gray whales and not kill any members of the resident population off
Cape Flattery at the northwestern tip of the continental United States.

The planned tribal hunt has sparked an international outcry from animal
rights groups and anti-whaling activists. Some environmentalists have vowed
to disrupt the hunt, leading the Makahs to closely guard their plans for
the tribe's first whale kill in 70 years.

The Makah, who have an 1855 treaty with the federal government specifically
preserving their right to whale, won approval from the International
Whaling Commission to kill up to five whales a year over the next four
years.

Tribal leaders hope the hunt will revive cultural pride, identity, and
connection to their roots.

"It's bringing us together," said Johnson. "All of our songs and dances,
everything in our culture has meaning directly related to the whale and the
whale hunt."

Conservation groups argue that the Makah should refrain from whaling given
that they no longer have a subsistence need for the meat and blubber as
their ancestors did.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society anchored its protest flagship in
plain sight of the main reservation village of Neah Bay. Sea Shepherd
founder Paul Watson said Pacific gray whales still deserve protection, even
though they were removed from the federal Endangered Species List
in 1994.

"These guys are so gentle, it's like shooting a puppy dog," said Watson. "I
don't see how there's any honor in that."

The Makah is the only tribe whose 19th century treaty with the U.S.
government specifically preserved the right to hunt whales.

Watson and other whaling opponents fear a successful Makah hunt will open
the door to other peoples and nations with whaling histories to resume
hunting for "cultural" reasons, most notably Japan, Norway, and Iceland.

REUTERS



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