A comment period is open on a plan that first brought turmoil and sadness to most of our community 20 years ago.
The quest to kill gray whales is now within striking distance again.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) plan allows up to 25 whales to be killed every 10 years.
Problems include there is no way to humanely kill a whale, and whale meat is unnecessary for local subsistence.
Our local resident whales (35-40) will take a disproportionate hit from this near-shore hunt, and with the inevitable loss of females, the NMFS plan will be one of management to extinction for these whales.
Impacts of their loss to the Salish Sea ecosystem go unmentioned by NMFS.
Another local issue is the use of a .50 caliber rifle, with a 5-mile lethal range, to shoot at struggling, harpooned whales from a rocking boat.
All previous hunts occurred at gray whales’ outer coast feeding sites, where shots fired were within a mile and a half of campers and hikers on Olympic National Park’s wilderness beaches.
NMFS acknowledges the danger to Park visitors, but ONP has remained oddly silent.
Search on-line for “Federal Register, January 29, 2020, Makah whaling” for links to comment and to view more information, including transcripts of the recent six-day hearing in Seattle.
The comment period closes on March 16.
Margaret Owens
Joyce