SEATTLE — The National Marine Fisheries Service will broaden its study of the Makah request to resume whaling by including the tribe’s proposed whale quotas under the Whaling Convention Act.
The 1949 law makes the United States a member of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
Since late last year, the fisheries service has been writing an environmental impact statement on the Makah’s petition for a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
To that end, the fisheries service held scoping meetings last October in Neah Bay, Port Angeles, Seattle and Silver Spring, Md.
Some participants at those meetings said the tribe must satisfy the dual requirements of the marine mammal act and the whaling law.
“We took those comments to heart,” Donna Darm, assistant regional administrator for the fisheries service, said Thursday.
“It makes more sense to analyze them together. We hope it makes it easier for the public because we are combining all the things we need to consider into one environmental impact statement.”
“It’s a step in the direction of what emerged in the scoping meetings,” said Makah Tribal Councilman Micah McCarty.
“All of these actions are related. The logic on the Makah side is that this would be a logical step to include it in the environmental impact statement.”
McCarty said it also would “strengthen the study against scrutiny by the opposition.”
