On January 10th, The Fund for Animals, The Humane
Society of the United States, and others filed a second legal
challenge in U.S. District Court over the killing of gray
whales by the Makah tribe off the coast of Washington.
Despite a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the previous
environmental study authorizing the whale hunt violated
federal law, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service
have actually expanded the hunt by now allowing hunting
close to shore and any time during the year, thus making it
much more likely that summer resident whales would be
killed and greatly increasing the threat to human safety.
Moreover, the Makah have requested $1.9 million from the
federal government to continue whaling activities.
The plaintiffs argue that the agencies have again violated
the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to
adequately study the ways in which the Makah whale hunt
could adversely affect the environment, especially because
the expanded hunt poses an even greater risk to the area's
resident gray whales and human safety. The plaintiffs also
argue that the agencies' authorization of the whale hunt
violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which expressly
prohibits whaling, while creating an exemption for Alaskan
tribes but not for the Makah.
Said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The
Fund for Animals, "Whaling may have been a tradition in the
past, but there is nothing traditional about cruelly shooting
these majestic creatures with high-powered rifles. The
government has ignored hundreds of public comments
opposing the whale hunt, has thumbed its nose at the court
by ignoring its instructions to produce an unbiased study,
and is fleecing American taxpayers to promote whaling."
According to Dr. Naomi Rose, marine mammal scientist for
The Humane Society of the United States, "The government
is not applying good science when it dismisses the
importance of the summer resident whales to the Puget
Sound ecosystem. Resident whales may be genetically
distinct, and may play a vital role in the local ecology of the
region."
The plaintiffs are represented by the public interest law firm
Meyer & Glitzenstein.
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