WASHINGTON — Makah tribal members and animal-rights activists squared off at a National Marine Fisheries Service hearing yesterday over the tribe's request to hunt 20 gray whales as part of its cultural traditions.

Six years ago, the Makah Tribe killed its first gray whale in 70 years off the Washington coast.

But a 2002 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals requires the tribe to obtain a waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act to conduct another hunt. The tribe, which has hunted gray whales for the meat and for ceremonial purposes for more than 1,500 years, requested the waiver in February.

Patricia Lane, an attorney for the Humane Society of the United States, said that granting the waiver would weaken the Marine Mammal Protection Act and set a dangerous precedent. The law, passed in 1972, protects whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions.

"It will open the door to allow all sorts of groups for all sorts of requests," Lane said.

Yesterday's meeting was intended to gather suggestions on alternatives to hunting and how the environment might be affected if hunting were allowed. The comments will be part of an environmental-impact study, the first step in deciding whether to grant the waiver.

The activists' suggestions included placing the gray whale back on the endangered-species list, and finding ways the Makahs could perform ceremonial activities involving whales without killing them.

"There's no humane way to kill a whale," said Naomi Rose, a marine-mammal scientist with the Humane Society.

Tribal leaders said the fisheries agency should consider how the tribe would be affected by not being able to hunt whales.

"Each time I sit through one of these things I think, 'Why are these people debating the history of my culture?' " said Dave Sones, Makah tribal council vice chairman. "There's a lot of frustration in the tribe."

The Makahs want to hunt 20 whales over a five-year period, with a maximum of five kills per year. The tribe says an 1855 treaty between the Makahs and the U.S. gives them the right to hunt whales.

"If we can get through these processes and secure our legal means as a tribe, our children won't have to go through this again," Sones said.

Sones said the Makahs hunted whales long before U.S. and international whaling communities established guidelines protecting the animals. He also noted that it wasn't Native Americans who hunted the whales to near-extinction.

The meeting was the last of four in a long process the tribe must go through to secure the right to hunt gray whales, which were taken off the endangered-species list in 1994.

The National Marine Fisheries Service held yesterday's meeting in Silver Spring, Md., at the request of animal-rights activists who weren't able to attend the first three hearings.

The draft environmental impact study should be ready next fall, said Donna Darm with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the fisheries agency. It's unknown when a final decision might come.

"We fully anticipate additional lawsuits," Sones said, "and we fully anticipate that the permits will be issued."