PORT ANGELES — Almost three years in the writing, the environmental-impact statement on Makah whaling will make its live public debut today in the Vern Burton Center.
The public meeting is scheduled to run from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the hall at 208 E. Fourth St.
Another session is set for 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Monday in the Lake Union Park Armory, 860 Terry Ave. N., Seattle.
Nine hundred pages long, the environmental-impact statement is the National Marine Fisheries Service examination of the tribe’s request for a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
A federal appeals court ruled in June 2004 that the tribe was subject to the act, and the Makah filed for a waiver in February 2005.
The fisheries service conducted scoping hearings in October 2005, and since then tribal whale hunters and anti-whalers alike have awaited the impact statement.
