Dead whale was shot, harpooned
NEAH BAY, Wash. – The U.S. Coast Guard says a gray whale reportedly harpooned and shot by Makah tribal members has died in northwest Washington’s Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said the whale was headed toward the Pacific Ocean after being wounded Saturday morning. But it disappeared beneath the surface about 7:15 p.m., dragging buoys that had been attached to a harpoon, and did not resurface. A biologist working for the Makah Indian tribe declared it dead, Eggert said.
Five people thought to be members of the Makah tribe shot and harpooned the whale on Saturday morning, Petty Officer Kelly Parker said in Seattle.
They were detained by the Coast Guard and later turned over to Makah tribal police.
Tribal officials did not immediately return a call for comment.
Although the Makah Tribe has subsistence fishing rights to kill whales, preliminary information indicated the whale may have been shot illegally, said Mark Oswell, a spokesman for the law enforcement arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
“We allow native hunts for cultural purposes. However, this does not appear to be of that nature so far,” he said.
The Coast Guard, using two boats, had created a 1,000-yard safety zone around the injured whale after it was wounded about a mile east of Neah Bay in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, about 120 miles northwest of Seattle.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act outlaws whaling in the United States, but the Makah Tribe of Neah Bay has won the right to resume whale hunting off the coast of Washington state, based on an 1855 treaty with the federal government.
The Makah Tribe, which has more than 1,000 members and is based in Neah Bay, hunted its first whale in 70 years in 1999 with the permission of the U.S. government and the Makah tribal council. A gray whale was killed, its meat was distributed to tribal members, and the carcass’ skeleton was eventually mounted in the tribal museum.
Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson told the Seattle Times 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 said the tribe had not yet secured that exemption for a new hunt.
The Coast Guard, Makah tribal police, the National Marine Fisheries Service, Washington State Patrol and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife were investigating the incident, Parker said. A preliminary report said the whale was shot with a .50-caliber machine gun, Oswell said.
NOAA spokesman Brian Gorman in Seattle said the agency was notified Saturday morning that a fisherman had seen Makah fishermen shooting at a whale. NOAA asked the Coast Guard to respond. The Coast Guard took five tribal members into custody. They were questioned and turned over to Makah tribal police, Gorman said.