Makah tribal leaders head to D.C. today

A delegation of Makah tribal leaders will head to Washington, D.C., today to attempt damage control after five tribal members illegally shot and killed a protected gray whale Saturday.

The tribe has been seeking an exemption to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act from the National Marine Fisheries Service to allow legal whale hunts. Now tribal leaders say they are worried the actions of a few have hurt the tribe's chances.

"I don't know what will happen; I'm worried about it," said Ben Johnson, tribal chairman. "They could look at it now, and stop it."

The delegation, including three former tribal chairmen, hopes to repair the tribe's reputation, said Micah McCarty, a member of the tribal council who also will make the trip to visit members of the state's congressional delegation and fisheries-service officials.

The tribe legally hunted its first whale in more than 70 years in 1999, under a permit granted by the fisheries service and a quota of whales allotted through a complicated deal with the U.S. government by the International Whaling Commission.

Environmental and animal-rights groups have repeatedly sued to block the hunt, keeping whalers on the beach for years. Protesters also held vigil in boats in Neah Bay for weeks at a time during the 1999 hunt and in some instances tried to put themselves between the whalers and their prey, using boats and even Jet Skis.

The Coast Guard posted three armed Zodiac boats in Neah Bay on Sunday night in case of protest activity, or to impose a security zone around the whale carcass had it surfaced, said Shawn Eggert, agency spokesman. But with no sign of either the whale or protesters, the Coast Guard brought the boats back to Seattle on Monday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service directed the carcass cut loose from the floats whalers harpooned into its body after the whale died Saturday, some 10 hours after being harpooned and shot, said Brian Gorman, spokesman for the fisheries service. The carcass sank to the bottom of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where it has remained.

Gorman said the service would not allow the tribe to bring the whale to the beach to butcher it for food because it had not been legally hunted.

The carcass is expected to surface within a few days as the whale's body decomposes and fills with gas. If the carcass is found, the fisheries service will take samples to analyze the animal's DNA, and test the blubber for any presence of contamination. Then the animal will be towed out to sea "to let it return to nature," Gorman said.

Federal investigators have been in Neah Bay interviewing tribal members since Saturday. No decision has been made as to whether to press charges, which could include a civil penalty of a fine up to $25,000, or a misdemeanor criminal charge punishable by up to a year in prison.

The matter also could be prosecuted in tribal court, where the whalers could face up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine. The tribe also could suspend the whalers' tribal treaty rights for as long as three years, a heavy penalty in a community where many tribal members make their living through treaty-protected fishing rights.

The Humane Society of the United States called Monday for criminal prosecution by the feds and demanded the fisheries service halt any consideration of an exemption to the Marine Mammal Protection Act that would allow the tribe to legally hunt whales.

Gov. Christine Gregoire also expressed dismay over the illegal hunt in remarks made at a regularly scheduled news conference Monday: "We've got to make clear, and I think the tribe is really doing a good job of making clear that they will not tolerate members of the tribe who go and disrespect their law and our law."

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com