NEAH BAY — The 32-foot hand-hewn cedar canoe “Hummingbird” sits at a dock in the Makah Marina, waiting for a crew to paddle it into the chilly Pacific to hunt a gray whale.
Two Makah families — eight men each — are ready for the hunt.
A third family, including some men who led the Makah in their 1998 return to whaling, is considering an August hunt in time for Neah Bay’s annual Makah Days celebration.
But it’s not so easy to take a whale, says Wayne Johnson, who was the captain of the Makah’s only successful modern-day whale hunt so far.
“You can’t just go out there and get one,” says Johnson, remembering the weeks of pursuing whales that preceded the kill.
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