Posted on 09/10/2007 2:53:36 PM PDT by Stoat
01:20 PM PDT on Monday, September 10, 2007
NEAH BAY, Wash. - The Coast Guard and National Marine Fisheries Service says the California gray whale killed by rogue whalers off Neah Bay could refloat as it decays.
If it is found, the carcass would likely be evidence in a case against Makah tribal members.
Coast Guard spokesman Shawn Eggert says buoys were cut from the whale when it sank Saturday, but it still carries a harpoon.
National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman says the decaying process could cause the whale to float in two or three days in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. But it could drift for miles and never be found. He says hundreds of gray whales die every year of natural causes and very few are found on beaches.
The Makah Tribal Council on Sunday denounced the killing of the whale that was harpooned and shot several times off Washington's coast, calling it "a blatant violation of our law" and promising to prosecute those responsible.
But one of the men suspected in the killing told The Seattle Times on Sunday that he was "feeling kind of proud" and whaling is "in the blood."
"We are a law-abiding people, and we will not tolerate lawless conduct by any of our members," the council said in a statement released Sunday.
The U.S. Coast Guard detained five men believed to have killed the whale on Saturday, then turned them over to tribal police for further questioning.
In its statement, the council said the men, whose names it did not release, were booked into the tribe's detention facility and released after posting bail. The council said the men will stand trial in tribal court, but did not set a date.
Governor Chris Gregoire says she's "very upset" by the killing of the whale.
She told a news conference in Olympia Monday she's encouraged that the tribe did not condone Saturday's hunt and that it's prosecuting the whalers.
AP
A California gray whale is unable to escape from a fishing net hours after Makah Tribal members harpooned then shot the whale Saturday in the Strait of Juan de Fuca east of Neah Bay, Wash.
The American Indian tribe has more than 1,000 members and is based in Neah Bay at Washington's westernmost tip.
Wayne Johnson, captain of the whaling crew that in 1999 legally killed the tribe's first whale in decades, told The Seattle Times that he and four other tribal members plunged at least five steel whaling five harpoons into the animal then shot it with a .460-caliber rifle.
Johnson, 54, said he had no regrets -- other than waiting so many years to do it.
"I'm not ashamed," he told The Times. "I'm feeling kind of proud. ... I should have done it years ago. I come from a whaling family, on my grandmother's side and my grandfather's side. It's in the blood."
The Makah tribe's treaty rights to hunt whales have been tangled in the courts for several years.
The federal government removed the gray whale from the endangered species list in 1994. Five years later, with a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service, Makah tribal members killed their first whale in more than 70 years.
Animal welfare activists sued, leading to a court order that the tribe must obtain a waiver under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to continue hunting whales.
John McCarty, a former tribal whaling commission member who has been an advocate of the Makah's right to resume whaling, said the tribe had been working to obtain the waiver and that the process was close to completion.
"I don't know why they did this. It's terrible," McCarty told The Times. "I think the anti-whalers will be after us in full force, and we look ridiculous. Like we can't manage our own people, we can't manage our own whale."
The Times reported that four of the five men detained Saturday took part in the 1999 hunt. All five could face civil penalties of up to $20,000 each and up to a year in jail, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The whale was headed toward the Pacific Ocean after being wounded and later disappeared beneath the surface, dragging down buoys that had been attached to a harpoon. A biologist for the tribe declared the animal dead, Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said.
Orbusmax ™ Northwest News - 'Around The World In 80K'
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Related item:
More to the story The rogue whale hunt
"But now, with the rogue killling of a whale without tribal or federal approval, there is no telling how or if the waiver process will be impacted," said P-I reported Lewis Kamb, who has covered the tribe's controversial struggle to defend its treaty right to hunt whales.
Featured prominently in this story marking the five-year anniversary of the tribe's 1999 whale hunt is tribal member and whaling commissioner Wayne Johnson, the man at the center of the weekend controversy. Kamb explains:
"During my numerous interviews with Wayne for the anniversary story, it was clear that he and some other tribal members in his corner would seek to hunt whales again with or without permission," Kamb said.
"The feeling among Wayne and some others was that they were willing to put up with the legal process seeking to ensure the tribe's whaling rights -- but only to a point. Wayne and the others (who represent only a small fraction of the tribe) told me then that to their way of thinking, too much process and too much time was only another way to delay and deny the tribe its treaty right to hunt whales ("They've taken my fingers, now they're working on my thumb," is how Wayne put it.)
"A lot of that frustration -- and indications that rogue hunts were a possibility -- is evident in the story."
Kamb described the tribe's legal efforts in this 2005 story.
"The tribe was well on its way in that process when this weekend's hunt occurred," Kamb said.
The tribe has vowed to prosecute the members involved in the hunt.
Oh man...I wonder what kind of spices you use for whale? Anyone?
A few stories on the web are saying that the natives used a “.50 caliber machine gun” to shoot the whale.
That error was debunked in this FR thread, but they continue to spread the error today.
No worries, the same morons in the media keep saying that 1998 was hotter than 1934.
I can see it now...
Perry Mason, to judge: Your honor, I submit this 30-ton rotting whale carcass with a harpoon up its butt as Defense Exhibit B...
OK, so it's probably gonna be evidence for the prosecution, not the defense, but you get the picture anyways, right?
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LMAO!
And FBI ballistics experts will draw straws among themselves to find the lucky one who puts on the Tyvek suit, cuts the giant incision in the carcass and is lowered inside the whale via a crane to retrieve the slug for ballistics analysis
They don’t have to. A Coast Guard boat was there.
no spices for this one because they Indians just let the meat go to waste, which is curious since didn’t they argue they needed the whale for substinance?
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