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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: September 2007

Five Makah arrested for killing whale without permit

 

NEAH BAY, Washington-- Frustrated by eight years of failing to obtain a new federal permit to kill gray whales, after killing one in May 1999, Makah tribal whaler Wayne Johnson, 54, and four other Makah-- Theron Parker, Andy Noel, Billy Secor and Frank Gonzales Jr.--on September 8, 2007 killed a whale without a permit and without tribal authorization or awareness.

"Crew members plunged at least five stainless steel whaling harpoons into the animal. Then they shot it," wrote Seattle Times staff reporter Lynda V. Mapes. "The Coast Guard, alerted to the hunt by onlookers, was on the scene within hours. Johnson and the others quickly found themselves in handcuffs," recounted Mapes. "The Coast Guard confiscated the gun and their boats, and cut the whale, harpoons and all, loose to drift on the current. By evening, the whale was dead, and sank out of sight.

"After questioning, the Coast Guard turned the whalers over to tribal police. They spent most of Saturday night at the tribal jail on the reservation, then were released on bond," Mapes said.

The Makah Nation claim a right to kill whales under the 1855 agreement that brought the tribe into the U.S. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2002, however, that the Makah must obtain a waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act before they may hunt whales again.

Johnson said he had been told by a tribal lobbyist that obtaining the waiver might take two more years.