Makah tribal members shoot, injure gray whale

Five Makah tribe members shot and injured a gray whale near Neah Bay this morning, the U.S. Coast Guard and eyewitnesses reported.

The whale was in the water and still alive around 2 p.m., said Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker.

Charlotte King, a Makah tribal member, said several men had been handcuffed and taken to the Coast Guard's Neah Bay station. Parker could not immediately confirm that report.

"They are bringing it in as we speak," King said of the drama surrounding the whale. "It just gives me the shivers. It's kind of good news and sad news. I have mixed feelings. It's exciting that we are exercising our right to go whaling, but I like whales, too. I wonder what they'll do with the meat."

Reached earlier today, Makah Nation Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson said tribal whalers had been out practicing hunting skills in connection with their sovereign treaty rights to hunt whales. He could not confirm that a whale had been killed.

The Coast Guard, National Marine Fisheries Service and state Department of Fish and Wildlife are investigating, in cooperation with Makah tribal police, Parker said. Three Coast Guard vessels from Neah Bay set up a 1000-foot-diameter "safety and security zone" to keep other boats away.

The shooting took place about a mile east of Neah Bah and half a mile offshore, the Coast Guard reported. The Coast Guard was alerted to the incident at 11 a.m. and arrived on the scene at 11:45.

Dave Sallee of Forks, Clallam County, a non-Indian fisherman, said he saw two boats surrounding a gray whale and pursuing it as it pulled buoys through the water that appeared to be attached to the whale by harpoon lines. Sallee said he heard a total of 21 shots.

Sallee said the whale appeared to be an adult and that he'd seen it rising and diving, but that before long it appeared to be still.

Johnson, the tribal chairman, was reached while he was consulting with the tribe's attorneys. He confirmed that the tribe has been seeking an exemption from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act so that it could take up to five gray whales per year. However, Johnson continued, the tribe has not yet secured that exemption.

In 1999, the tribe had a permit to whale from the National Marine Fisheries Service, allowing it to hunt on the outer coast of its homeland on the north Olympic Peninsula at Neah Bay. That permit is now tied up in court challenges. But even if it were in force today, if the whale was taken within the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as appears to be the case, that would be a violation of the permit.

The permit also required the whale to be secured with a harpoon from a traditional canoe before being dispatched with shots from a high-powered rifle. However, Sallee said he saw no canoe in the water. The canoe, he said, was tied up to one of the motorized boats at the time.

The tribe hunted its first whale in 70 years in 1999 with the permission of the U.S. government and the Makah tribal council. However, today's shooting was not authorized by either the tribal council or the federal government.