NOAA: Should We Allow North Pacific Gray Whale Hunts?

Photo credit: KOMO News

Will a new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration make it possible to hunt the North Pacific gray whale?

NOAA’s draft report proposes six options concerning the gray whale and the Makah Indian tribe, ranging from a ban on the annual hunt to allowing 24 whales to be harvested over six years.

“This is a first step in a public process that could eventually lead to authorization for the tribe to hunt gray whales,” said Donna Darm, associate deputy regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries in the West Coast region.

There are approximately 20,000 gray whales in the North Pacific, a species that was removed from the endangered species list in 1994.

This whale has been hunted by the Makah tribe for generations to be used for subsistence and ceremony.

Controversy sparked when the tribe used treaty rights to capture a whale in 1999, and whaling opponents filed a lawsuit.

In 2004, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that in order to comply with the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NOAA would have to study the environmental impacts.

The Makah tribe has not been allowed to hunt the whales while the NOAA report was in development, but in 2007, five Makah whalers conducted an illegal hunt.

According to NOAA Fisheries, it took several hours for the whales shot in that hunt to die and sink.

This recently released draft study from NOAA includes all the latest information on the whale population. Their proposals vary based on the time, location, and number of strikes during resumed hunting, if hunting at all is an option.

NOAA’s final document will select the best of the six options. Stay tuned for those results!

Read more from KOMO News and the Associated Press.