NEAH BAY – Makah tribal delegates will fly to Washington, D.C., today, to assure the state’s congressional delegation that the tribe did not approve the hunting and killing of a gray whale Saturday.
The tribe since late 2005 has awaited an environmental-impact review of its request to resume legal whaling under a waiver from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson Jr. said the whale’s death damaged the Makah’s case with both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the public.
“We know it’s going to hurt,” he said Sunday.
The delegation hopes to meet with Sens. Patty Murray, D-Freeland, and Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace, and with Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair.
“They need to know that we didn’t condone the hunt,” Johnson said.
The Makah previously and legally killed a whale on May 17, 1999, the first time since they abandoned the practice in the 1920s after non-native whalers had nearly extirpated Pacific gray whales.
The hunt was conducted in the glare of publicity and protest that escalated into confrontations between anti-whalers and tribal members and between protesters and the Coast Guard.
The skeleton of the 20-ton female whale is displayed in the Makah Cultural and Research Center in Neah Bay.
After the hunt, a snarl of litigation resulted in a 2004 federal appeals court ruling that the tribe must seek an environmental review and waiver from the marine mammal act.
The Makah filed for the waiver in February 2005. The request was submitted to public scoping meetings in Neah Bay, Port Angeles, Seattle and Silver Spring, Md., that fall.
Speaking of the request to resume whaling, Johnson said: “It’s been in the works for years and years, and they [the five hunters] decided to go on their own.”
