Rising again like the undead: Makah whaling
Well, here we go again, folks. Round four.
The feds and the Makah Tribe are pulling out all the stops (again) to circumvent federal law and try to push their whaling agenda on the American public.
This time around, according to today's Federal Register posting, they are conducting "public scoping meetings to gather information to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), related to the Makah Tribe's request that NMFS waive the take moratorium of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to allow for treaty right hunting of eastern North Pacific gray whales in usual and accustomed grounds off the coast of Washington State. This notice briefly describes the background of the Makah's request for waiver; gives dates, times, and locations of public scoping meetings; identifies a set of preliminary alternatives to serve as a starting point for discussions; and terminates the prior notice of intent to prepare an EIS on a similar action.
DATES: Three public scoping meetings are scheduled:
1. October 5, 2005, Neah Bay, WA.
2. October 6, 2005, Port Angeles, WA.
3. October 11, 2005, Seattle, WA.
See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for specific times and locations of the public meetings.
In addition to the meetings, written or electronic comments from all interested parties are encouraged and must be received no later than 5 p.m. PDT October 24, 2005.
ADDRESSES: All comments concerning preparation of the EIS and NEPA process should be addressed to: Kassandra Brown, NMFS Northwest Region, Building 1, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115. Comments may also be submitted via fax (206)526-6426, Attn: Makah Tribe Whale Hunt EIS, or by electronic mail to MakahEIS.nwr@noaa.gov with a subject line containing the document identifier: Makah Whale EIS.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kassandra Brown, NMFS Northwest Region, (206)526-4348."
My involvement in this issue is (and always has been) of a legal nature; to wit, I have always asserted that any whale hunting by the Makah Tribe is illegal under federal law, namely the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and could care less about the so-called cultural or historical issues involved. It is also illegal under international law. Period.
To date, that viewpoint has been supported by the federal courts three separate times. It looks like we're going to have to go for four and call it a sweep. But this time I intend to go for the throat: the "A" word.
A-B-R-O-G-A-T-I-O-N
Just the mention of that word sends chills up the spines of the Makah tribal so-called "leadership," but remember one thing: I didn't pick this fight, but I fully intend to finish it.
Bring it on.
12 Comments:
Hey Dan...are you going to the meeting in Neah Bay on Oct. 5th..?? It may be the best one to go to...if you are..I will go with you and haul your remains back to Sekiu..lol Dan..you just don't seem to understand...these poor folks have been down trodden and on the government dole for only 150 years..now they are just trying to be regular citizens...just like you and me...with super citizen privileges ..what's wrong with that..??
A-B-R-O-G-A-T-I-O-N
Dan..love that word..!! Now tell me how you plan to make that happen while Cantwell and Murray are our state senators..??..needless to mention Governor Christine Gregoire..!! Folks should have thought along these lines (the "A" word) before they voted..!! When you have a real life plan..I will support you with $ and in person..!!!..whole heartedly..!!!
I love a good fight. Give em what for Dan.
It's in the treaty. Plain and simple.
Re: "It's in the treaty."
Anonymous; your continued clinging to that well-rehearsed (but meaningless) phrase is exactly why you are going to lose. You can't see the truth because you refuse to. It's mindless and pathetic.
But don't worry... I'll take care of that little problem for you soon. See ya in court.
"Bring it on."
Wasn't that said recently by someone who was sitting safely at home while other people would take the (literal) flak?
As a result, it has a whiff of hiding-behind-mommy's-apron-strings about it.
Maybe not a phrase one wishes to be associated with.
Naw, I can live with that statement. I have never hid behind anyone's skirt- hmmm, there was that one night in Memphis long ago, but I digress... ;-)
As I hopefully made crystal clear in my original post, my involvement and interest here is of a LEGAL nature. To date, I have been involved in that effort on a daily basis for over eight years.
So, in that context, and that context only, I repeat: bring it on. I want this thing to finally and totally end so we can all get on with our lives- those on BOTH sides of the argument.
I recently heard the Makah have been whaling in Russia and selling their allotment of whales to the Russians. That doesn't sound like cultural, subsistence, or treaty based does it?
Whatever whaling was done years ago was for subsistence. I really don't believe that they require whaling as a way of life.
Stay tuned for news on the Russian angle... I've said for years that's the crucial missing piece to this whole fiasco.
Please.... The Macaws make their money on overfishing Chinook in the winter months.
RESEDENT WHALES also known as (PCFA)
Traditionally the Makah tribe would have never let any whales take up residency in our tribal hunting areas. The areas the PCFA are known to feed and hang out just so happen to be the same areas the Makah tribe had villages. These areas are Ozette, suez, wiatch, tatoosh island, and areas surrounding Neah Bay. Any whales that wandered near these village locations would have been consumed as a convenient source of meat. Therefore if there are in fact a separate stock of whales feeding here it is a relatively new thing and may be having a profound effect on the ecosystem. So it should make no difference if we hunt them or not. It is well known that the grey whale can feed on up to 80 different species. It is thought that they may be feeding on herring and or ling cod eggs. There feeding in these areas may be taking food away from the local and migrating fish stocks. It may be necessary to harvest one of the whales feeding in our tribal area to examine the stomach contents to see what they are feeding on, also make an effort to calculate how much biomass they are consuming a year and what fish stocks are being affected.
Another possible theory for the presence of the PCFA whales is that some of the whales may not be strong enough to make the journey all the way back to the feeding grounds in the being sea or are not strong enough to compete with the other whales for food. These weaker whale stocks would have been eliminated by the Makah and other tribes to the north. With this thought in mind it means the tribal hunters played an important role in the natural selection process to insure only the strongest whales could make to journey to the north to feed or south to breed.
Tribal Cultural and Subsistence Whale Hunting
There has been a renewed interest in our community to find better sources of protein, free from the carcinogens pumped into processed foods and meats. (Like MSG, Sodium nitrates, and hydrogenated oils) because we live in a remote village we have limited varieties of foods available to us. Most or the food we consume on a daily basis is purchased at the local store. Not all community members have means and are able to make the journey into cities over 50 miles away to get fresh meat and produce. When the only road we have washes out the Red Cross is sent in to help feed the village after a couple of days. Within a few days almost all the food in the local store is gone. We can’t always rely on our clams and mussels because of red tide and accessibility limited by tides and amount of storm surge. With the rising cost of fuel it may not always be economically feasible to ship goods into our remote village. Since we gave up our lands we would be unable to farm and raise cattle to feed ourselves. Even though we have 2000 tribal members of the 2000 only a small amount of men are physically able, have means and enough knowledge to hunt and navigate the sea. The only way only a few tribal members could go out and bring back enough food for the village is to bring home a whale.
Tribal Cultural and Subsistence Whale Hunting continued
If a natural disaster ever happened that wiped our roads and trade system we would be left to living off the land. The Red Cross would most likely concentrate there efforts in the major cities and us last, this could take weeks or possibly months depending on the severity of the disaster. This is why it is important for us to hold onto knowledge and active participation in whale hunting so we can feed ourselves now and in time of need. This ancient knowledge of self sufficiency and survival needs to be not only practiced but passed on to our children.
Section 4331. Congressional declaration of national environmental policy [NEPA Section 101]
(4) preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage, and maintain, wherever possible, an environment which supports diversity and variety of individual choice;
Whaling and U.S. Relations
Denying the Makah Tribe the whaling rights they were given in the treaty 1855 could effect U.S. relations and trust of other counties. For example when I was in Russia recently on a cultural exchange, representatives from other IWC nations were asking (you the Makah tribe was given a whale quota of five whales, why aren’t you exercising your right to whale). Other countries that the U.S. is trying to bring democracy to may see this as a sign that the U.S. may not always be good for there word.
Native Americans across the country will also become outraged if the Makah nation losses there right to whale. They may start to wonder if some day there rights will be challenged to and if this is just the first step to begin to strip treaties away from the tribes.
Makah Whaling and Effects on Tourism
Tourism is down all over the county because of the fuel crisis.
During the last whale hunt we had record turnouts at our local resorts and tribal gatherings. All of the neighboring towns benefited from this increase in traffic. I think you could analyze the tax returns of local resorts and the effort put in on the commercial sports fishery to verify this. The whale watching businesses also benefited from the increase in publicity of our area during the last hunt.
Whaling may in fact attract new kinds of interest and tourism to the area. If the idea were embraced instead of rejected it could have endless opportunities for all to benefit. The increase in interest in our area could be and opportunity to show the world all of the things the northwest has to offer. Jason t. Roberts Makah Tribal Member
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