Makah free to conduct whale hunt

Judge tosses out lawsuit seeking to halt the tribe

Friday, August 9, 2002

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess dismissed a lawsuit yesterday brought by animal-rights activists seeking to halt the Makah Tribe from hunting whales.

No legal impediment now prevents the Makah Tribe from a whale hunt, said attorney John Arum, who represents the tribe.

The suit, brought by The Humane Society of the United States, the Fund for Animals and individual animal-rights activists, alleged that the National Marine Fisheries Service acted in an arbitrary fashion when it granted the Makah a quota of whales for its ceremonial and subsistence hunt.

The tribe resumed hunting whales in October 1998 and killed one whale in May 1999.

In the lawsuit, the activists sought to portray the hunt near the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca as potentially dangerous to humans who could be hit by a stray bullet. And the activists alleged that the hunt would harm so-called "summer-resident" gray whale population, which comprises animals that spend longer periods in waters close to the reservation on the Olympic Peninsula.

The rest of the gray whale population moves up and down the coast, spending winters in Mexico and summers in Alaska.

Burgess rejected both arguments, saying the fisheries service had adequately weighed the issue of human safety and that scientific evidence suggests that there is no biological distinction between the "resident" whales and the rest of the population that would justify granting the "residents" special protection.

The court also set aside the activists' contention that the Marine Mammal Protection Act trumps the tribe's right to whale retained by the Makah when they signed a treaty with the United States in 1855.

In April, Burgess issued a temporary restraining order that shut down the opportunity to hunt. But he lifted the temporary restraining order in mid-May and denied the activists' motion for a preliminary injunction.

They have appealed the denial of the preliminary injunction.

The International Whaling Commission in May issued a new quota of gray whales to the United States for future Makah hunts.

P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky can be reached at 206-448-8072 or paulshukovsky@seattlepi.com

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