Saving Whales or Saving Native Culture?

In October the Makah tribe will kill four gray whales off the coast of Neah Bay. Is it money for some tribal members or big bucks for the whaling industry? Or is it to save (revive) a dying part of the Makah culture? Environmentalists are preparing to protest the killings with a fleet of boats. Some Makah say the whales are needed for the tribe to survive, and others say the tribe should not be in the business of whaling. Some activists are calling the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society racists for getting in bed with Congressman Jack Metcalf. Like Slade Gorton (who, along with the Attorney General in Washington, refused to enforce court decisions concerning native fishing rights) Metcalf has a history of opposing native treaty rights.

In 1855 the Treaty of Neah Bay "gave" native people the right to take fish, whales and seals. Now, after a 70 year lapse in which the Makah haven't whaled, they wish to reassert their Treaty right to kill gray whales, and the Clinton administration is supporting the plan. Under the terms of an international whaling treaty the U.S. signed in 1946, the tribe is required to get permission from at least three- fourths of the countries that have also signed the treaty, but at this time the Makah are preparing to kill the whales on the assurances of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce.

The U.S. joined with most of the member nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1986 to declare a worldwide moratorium against commercial whaling. In May of 1994, Dave Sones, fisheries manager for the Makah Tribal Council, won a five-year battle to remove the gray whale from the Endangered Species List. Under IWC definitions, aboriginal quotas are to be given to identifiable cultural groups who have an unbroken active whaling effort, a cultural need, or a nutritional/subsistence need. The U.S. government has ruled that the Makah can kill whales solely under the cultural need definition, and therefore do not have to prove a subsistence need.

Gray whales were not traditionally eaten; humpback whales were most often consumed. Gray whales were boiled to yield oil that was traded to other tribes and early European settlers. The Makah are not the only people who want to resume gray whaling in the area. Currently, subsistence whaling is allowed among the Inupiat in Alaska, the Chukotka in Russia, Eskimos in Greenland, residents of the Faroe Islands, and a small group on the Caribbean island of St. Vincents. Several others, including the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Indian nations on Vancouver Island, have expressed interest in resuming whaling.

The whales will be killed within the Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary (OCMS), which extends about 38 miles seaward of shore on the north end of the Olympic Peninsula. The federal sanctuary encompasses 3,310 square miles. An eight member whaling crew was chosen and sent recently to Barrow, Alaska to learn about the killing, cutting and preparation of whales. The Makah intend to throw a ceremonial harpoon, and then use a 50 caliber, armor-piercing anti-tank gun to kill the whales. While trying to kill four whales, they are allowed to wound a total of ten whales in the process.

Whalers from around the globe visited the Makah Indian reservation on the Olympic Peninsula in March. The 60 visitors were from the World Council of Whalers--an alliance of aboriginal communities and Japanese and Norwegian interests battling to resurrect the now-banned commercial whale trade. Organizers say at least 20 percent of the council's $100,000 start-up budget came from those two countries. Makah Tribal Council Representative Keith Johnson met with Japanese trade officials to discuss "terms of trade in mammals," and the Makah have also sent a representative to Japan.

Gray whales make the longest known migration of any mammal--up to 12,500 miles from Mexico to the Bering Sea. The total population of the gray whale is estimated at approximately 21,000 animals. They presently have a recovery rate of only 2.6% per year. Without regard for the precautionary principle (or in case of a catastrophe or disease), the claimed recovery rate of 2.6% may plummet. IWC scientists admit that the world of the whales is in trouble. The past ten years have seen increasing mortality of whales and other marine mammals around the world.

Neah Bay is the only reliable gray whale watching experience for tourists who visit Washington in the summer months. World economic expenditures in whale watching communities show that 5.4 million people worldwide do it every year. Between 1991 and 1994, whale watching grew by an average of 10.3% per year.

Unfortunately, because of this, gray whales no longer feel danger and flee from humans and their boats. It will take neither skill nor courage to kill them, as they are well known for their friendly and curious manner. In gray whale birthing lagoons, whales are particularly fond of approaching boats to have their heads rubbed and their gums and tongue massaged by human hands.

Claims for aboriginal whaling are being used as a tool for commercial interests to re-open commercial whaling. With the expansion of aboriginal cultural-only whaling absent subsistence requirements, the doors are slowly opening for the resumption of "cultural" commercial whaling. Tradition need not be based in killing. Many traditional peoples continue to practice their sacred ways without killing animals.

The next Stump Talk will examine the whale hunt from the Makah perspective--both sides of it. Stay tuned.

Stump Talk is put out every other week by a few ecofreaks. If you want to help out, or get more info, contact NW Forest Action Group, 206-632-1656, email can@scn.org.