The National Marine Fisheries Service does not plan to release a final environmental assessment on the Makah tribe’s gray whale hunt before the end of the month, a spokesman said Wednesday.
The federal agency previously indicated the report would be issued in March.
But that has been pushed back, mainly due to the large number of comments the Fisheries Service has received since the draft assessment was released in January, Fisheries spokesman Brian Gorman said.
“It will certainly be weeks and probably be months before we have some kind of environmental assessment and management plan in place to govern the hunt,” Gorman said.
Currently, there are no rules in place to manage a whale hunt.
