===== A message from the 'makahwhaling' discussion list ===== FROM THE WASHINGTON CITIZEN'S COASTAL ALLIANCE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Folks, we have been absolutely inundated with e-mail and phone requests to be added to this update list. We have been informed from several sources that this e-mail update is now received by over 100,000 people! Many of you have asked; "what can one person do? It seems so hopeless...." We are here to tell you that the message is being heard! Each one of us is taking action in conjunction with everyone else on this list, and we are having a TREMENDOUS impact! As an example, the following statement was inspired by your calls to Senator Gorton: "This is an aggressive effort orchestrated by the tribes to show they can avoid the laws that govern the rest of us. I am more convinced today than ever before that we must bring common sense back to the relationship between this country, our laws and Native American tribes." PLEASE REDOUBLE your efforts to keep people informed of what they can do to STOP the ongoing Makah whale killing. Forward these updates to your friends and relatives, and ask them to contact us and subscribe to the list. We can not allow the truth to be hidden by the Makah or the federal government anymore. Even now, we are hearing from credible sources that the Makah have spoken of attempting to kill another whale as early as next week. As the Makah atrocity slowly begins to fade from the headlines, we each MUST take a solemn oath to keep the pressure on! Only through continuing calls and letters to our congressional representatives and the federal agencies responsible can we effect long-term change. KEEP THE PRESSURE ON before the whale killers of Neah Bay strike again! In view of the shocking backlash and violence against the Makah and other Native Americans following the Makah whale killing, we also feel it necessary to add that the Washington Citizen's Coastal Alliance does NOT condone the violence or threats that are still occuring here in the Pacific Northwest. The WCCA and its member organizations have a strict policy of non-violence. ***** FROM THE FRONT LINE ------------------------------------ A member of the PCPW scored a small victory for those of us still in grief and shock over the Makah atrocity. She managed to sneak on to the Makah reservation and made her way to the exact spot where the slaughter took place. Among the piles of empty cans, trash and still-visible traces of blood, she found a bloody glove- the exact spot where this whale was slaughtered. She laid a wreath and a lei, lit a candle and left a note which stated; "Dear baby, you didn't deserve this. We love you." While conducting her own personal ceremony, she was heckled and threatened with arrest by a Makah tribal member who spotted her on the beach. Remarkably, the entire slaughter area was surrounded by police "Crime Scene" tape. The PCPW member that shared this story with us hoped it might help some of you find a sense of closure for this tragedy that haunts us still. ***** FROM SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 19, 1999 A WHALE FOR THE KILLING Makah and feds reap the whirlwind; IWC must act When the prolonged, agonizing destruction of a 3-year-old Gray whale in U.S. waters was broadcast live into several million living rooms in the Pacific Northwest on the morning of May 17, people suddenly "got it" about the Makah Indian tribe's whale hunt. The sight of National Marine Fisheries Service personnel and a paid Alaskan Inuit engaging in the "ceremonial" butchery of the Makah's long-sought whale virtually alone (at one point calling out to the crowd, "Hey, we need some Makah over here!") did not help the tribe's cause. Makah whaling captain Wayne Johnson's subsequent statement to the media that "We'll be taking one again before long" further aggravated the situation in which the Makah have placed themselves. Increasingly isolated, the reservation is now routinely roadblocked in order to protect tribal members from outraged local citizens. Protests continue to grow. With commercial and tourism boycotts in the offing, other tribes are distancing themselves from the Makah. The First Nations Environmental Network stated on May 18 "We cannot support this action...at this point in human history, we feel that spiritually and morally, the act of killing whales cannot be justified." The U.S. Coast Guard, after ensuring that the Makah would succeed in killing a whale by sweeping protestors off the water, is faring no better. The Coast Guard has now issued an advisory to all personnel in Washington and Oregon not to go out in public while in uniform for their own safety. (Sea Shepherd commends those members of the Coast Guard who have broken ranks to let whale activists know that they "have to jump the fence and swim with the whales on this one," as one put it.) The offices of Washington newspapers, television stations, state legislators and Vice President Al Gore -- the individual most responsible for allowing the hunt to occur -- have been deluged with angry phone calls, faxes, and e-mails. "We do not condone threats of violence against individuals, but we understand the rage and anguish that has been awakened in ordinary people who know something is very wrong here," said Paul Watson, President of Sea Shepherd, which had a boat seized and crew arrested in the course of the struggle to prevent the killing of a whale. "Diplomatic double-talk from the International Whaling Commission is not helping any," Watson said. "It is now up to the infractions committee of the IWC, meeting next week in Grenada, to stop mincing words and simply state the obvious: The Makah are not a recognized subsistence tribe, and are not exempt from the world-wide ban on non-subsistence whaling. "In the meantime, the politicians are finally getting the message they haven't been able to hear until now: The American people will not tolerate a 'cultural' whale hunt in their country." On Wednesday, an anonymous mourner left a wreath, a flower lei, a candle and a note on the spot in the Makah marina where the whale was butchered. The note read "Baby, you didn't deserve this. We love you." The remains of the whale had been cordoned off with yellow police "crime scene" tape. ===================================== Sea Shepherd Conservation Society P.O. Box 628 Venice, CA. 90294 USA e-mail: seashepherd@seashepherd.org Web Site: http://www.seashepherd.org Tel: 310-301-SEAL(7325) Canada: 604-688-7325 Fax: 310-574-3161 ===================================== FROM PROJECT SEAWOLF ------------------------------------------ Project SeaWolf is working with Congressman Jack Metcalf to pursue the Makah whale hunters on the grounds that they have possibly violated the Memorandum-of-Understanding between the tribe and NOAA established prior to the hunt. The first and more likely violation references the location of the hunt, which according to the MOA Section II.2(e), "must be confined...."to the open waters of the Pacific Ocean OUTSIDE of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line." If our GPS coordinates of the kill are accurate, the Makah are in clear violation of this point -- a fact which the Congressman will agressively pursue. The second, less promising possible violation involves Sections II.2(d) of the MOA indicate that the tribe would "prohibit the taking of suckling calves or female whales accompanied by calves." If the stomach content of this whale shows evidence of nursing, this may be a clear violation. SeaWolf will report, through the WCCA new server, what the progress of this action. Note: Our email and webserver has permanently been terminated. We will re-establish our presence on the web shortly. Please direct any correspondence to Dan Spomer at dano@rockisland.com Michael Kundu, project SeaWolf Project Seawolf would like to dispell the rumors falsely claiming Jean-Michel Cousteau somehow supports the Makah whale hunt. Following is a statement Cousteau has published in response to the Makah hunt. Having worked with Cousteau in 1998, Project Seawolf holds nothing but respect for Cousteau and Ocean Futures. PRESS RELEASE- OCEAN FUTURES THE MAKAH: A DYING CULTURE? A Message from Jean-Michel Cousteau President, Ocean Futures The Makah Indians from the State of Washington at Neah Bay killed a California gray whale yesterday. I am in shock, saddened and once again, disappointed by the more destructive side of our species. I acknowledge that the Makahs have the "legal" right to do so, through an obsolete treaty signed with the US Government some 130 years ago, when whaling was a common practice. Today this is an unthinkable act, resulting in a needless, obsolete death. The Makah tribe had an opportunity to rise above the barbarism of killing. Now instead of respect from the human community, the arrogance of the few that pushed for this has brought about condemnation. I feel sorry for the silent majority who failed to prevent this. The Makah have been justifying their return to whaling as a cultural tradition. Yet, I note that culture is a living thing. To survive, it must adapt with time. History has shown that those who do not evolve eventually vanish from the earth. The Makah community has now proven it can kill a whale. What is next? I reach out with my heart and offer to help in a search for alternatives. By saving whales, maybe we can save our culture as well. ***** YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WHEREVER YOU ARE! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Santa Rosa (Sonoma County, northern California) Press-Democrat: May 19, 1999 Signaling their sorrow over the killing of a 3-year-old whale by Makah Indian Nation hunters in Washington state, about a dozen animal rights activists and anti-whaling protesters delivered a bouquet of flowers Tuesday afternoon to federal government offices in Santa Rosa. "Our idea is to express our grief over this whale slaying by U.S. government policies in a misguided attempt to revive an ancient tradition," said Dian Hardy, who presented the flowers to security guards of the Joseph Rattigan federal building for delivery to local offices of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The harpooning and shooting of a 34-ton whale by native hunters captured national media attention Monday when tribe members exercised their newly gained right to hunt whales. Tribal leaders have maintained that an exemption from International Whaling Commission hunting bans was necessary to restore pride in the coastal Washington tribe. Hardy and several of the flower-bearing activists have been to tribe's whale hunting grounds in the last year as a part of their effort to support environmental opposition to the change in international and U.S. policies. The group called upon Sen. Barbara Boxer and U.S. Representatives Mike Thompson and Lynn Woolsey to support an end to the whale hunting and reconsideration of the IWC exemption. ***** PLEASE CONTACT THE INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION, MEETING IN SESSION NOW ------------------------------------------- A Message from Breach Marine Protection Headquarters Breach Marine Protection holds the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the US Government directly responsible for the Makah whaling precedent. Without the consensus passed by the IWC Commissioners at their Monaco meeting in 1997, none of this would have been possible. Although thirteen Commissioners spoke against the Makah Gray whale 'quota' and only five spoke in favour, the IWC still allowed the US - Russian backdoor deal which traded Bowhead whales for Gray whales and made it possible for the US authorities (NMFS/ NOAA) to claim they had the right to approve the Makah's grizzly inhumane intentions. The IWC Secretary Raymond Gambell's written statement of the 5th. October 1998 (NOT put out in a general press release) that "The IWC has specifically not passed a judgement on recognising or otherwise the claim of the Makah Tribe, since the member nations were clearly unable to agree" came far too late, and in our opinion, intentionally so. Although they refused to bring the issue back to the table at their 1998 meeting, the IWC has the power to change their Monaco decision at their meeting in Granada due to start on 24th. May. THEY CAN OUTLAW MAKAH WHALING, PERMANENTLY. BMP therefore demands the IWC rights the wrongs it has done to the California Gray whales by: a) placing the Makah whaling issue on its agenda at Granada in isolation. b) the Commissioners taking a clear, public, open and pressure free vote purely on the US Makah whaling proposal. c) now that two Gray whales have been killed by the Makah before the IWC meeting, the IWC holds the US Government fully responsible for undermining the IWC - an international Convention - and the international community, and uses any redress open to the Commissioners under International Law or by applying sanctions against the US. d) replacing the Secretary of the International Whaling Commission with someone who can interpret the true wishes of the IWC. Note: Breach Marine Protection, AFA and other plaintiffs brought a lawsuit (Metcalf v Daley) against three named defendants, all officials of the US Government agencies NMFS/ NOAA, to test the legality of their authorisation of Makah whaling in 1997. The case was lost in a court in Tacoma, Washington State, in 1998. This decision to find for the defendants is now under appeal to the 9th. Appeals Court. BMP and others allege that by authorising the Makah to slaughter Gray whales, these US officials violated the US NEPA, WCA and Marine Sanctuary Acts, and International Law. The Appeals Court has also been asked to deal with the withholding of pertinent documents by these agencies to both the plaintiffs and the Tacoma Court. BMP expects a hearing date for this appeal in the very near future. ***** ACTION! ***** Inundate the IWC with these demands. Please contact them at: Attn: Raymond Gambell and Martin Harvey Email: iwcoffice@compuserve.com Tel: + 473 444 1382 Fax: + 473 444 1389 *****