National Marine Fisheries Service completes environmental impact statement on Neah Bay whaling

A polite, small crowd turned out Monday night to tackle a big topic: a more than 900-page environmental-impact statement on a proposal by the Makah tribe to hunt gray whales.

The tribe wants to hunt up to 20 gray whales on the outer coast of its reservation at Neah Bay, between December and May, killing up to five whales every year for four years.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has prepared an analysis of the environmental effects of the tribe's proposal. Any decision to allow the tribe to hunt would be made by an administrative law judge, who would consider whether the tribe should be granted a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow the hunt.

Three years have already gone into preparing the environmental-impact statement, and consideration of a waiver probably won't begin until next year.

"People are exhausted," said Will Anderson of Friends of the Gray Whale, as he assessed the crowd of about 60 at the South Lake Union Armory. "It was going to be hard for this to be a productive meeting with only three weeks to read this."

The fisheries service is going to extend the time period for public comments on the hunt until August, because of requests for more time to digest the document.

"We are trying really hard to slow them down, and keep them from just pushing this through," Anderson said. "Our job is to make sure this is not just rushed and biased, with a predetermined outcome."

Bill Moss, sporting a smart, black sport coat emblazoned World Whale Police down one arm, blamed the low turnout on disillusionment. "It's just apathy, people know it's a done deal, so why spin your tires on it?" Moss said. "You can bring in 47,000 people for hot-dog night at the stadium, but you can't get people here to protect the gray whale."

Micah McCarty, chairman of the Makah tribe, and Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission, made the trip from Neah Bay to gauge the turnout and public response.

Johnson has initiated his 7-year-old son into the whaling culture, and said in Neah Bay the whaling tradition, thousands of years old, still lives in families through songs and dances. Young people who were on the beach in 1999 when the tribe brought home its first whale in decades wonder what the hold up is to getting another one, Johnson said.

"The science says the population is healthy," Johnson said. "Are the people that are going to decide this going to do it looking at science, law and treaty rights? Or are people controlling it from their personal point of view? That's what I'm afraid of."

Tribal whalers impatient with the review process staged an illegal hunt last fall, harpooning and shooting a gray whale in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The animal died more than nine hours later and sank in deep water.

The five whalers will be sentenced in federal court later this month for convictions and guilty pleas on misdemeanor charges of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

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