Coast Guard Warned On Makah Protest

Sat., Aug. 29, 1998

From Staff

A congressman is threatening to sue the Coast Guard if it refuses to withdraw its proposal to keep protesters and others at least 1,500 feet away from Makah Tribe whale hunts this fall.

“It is essential that the Coast Guard reconsiders their misguided proposal,” Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., said Thursday in a prepared statement. “If there is going to be gray whale hunting off the coast of Washington state, our citizens have a right to see and document this horrible event.”

The proposed exclusionary zone around the Makah whale hunt would violate the National Environmental Policy Act, Metcalf said.

The Makah sought to conduct the hunt purely by traditional means, with harpoons. But for humanitarian reasons, the whaling commission insisted that the whale, once harpooned, must be finished off quickly with an automatic rifle.

The Coast Guard has imposed the restriction zone around the Makah canoe, apparently fearful that the 50-caliber machine guns the tribesmen will use could endanger nearby protesters. But conservation groups complain the limit will prevent them from filming the death of the whale.

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