The Makah Tribe, which has long sought approval to resume hunting whales off the Washington State coast, won approval from federal regulators on Thursday to harvest as many as 25 gray whales over the next decade.
The decision from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a crucial victory for the tribe in its decades-long quest to resume whaling traditions that were enshrined as a right in an 1855 treaty. Tribal leaders have said the whaling is needed for the tribe’s culture and welfare at a time when each is under threat.
“We are definitely excited and we are definitely relieved,” said T.J. Greene, chairman of the Makah Tribal Council. “We’ve been waiting a long time.”
The United States largely outlawed whaling more than 50 years ago because many species had been hunted to the edge of extinction. Since then, the Eastern North Pacific gray whales that the tribe plans to hunt have made a population comeback, and were removed from the endangered species list in 1994. Federal officials estimate their population to be about 20,000.
Still, conservation groups and others have vehemently fought against the hunts, arguing that the whales need continuing protection, that the intelligent and social mammals would suffer from the hunts, and that some gray whale species with smaller populations could be at risk of being hunted by accident.
“We have learned a lot about gray whales since that treaty was signed,” said D.J. Schubert, a senior wildlife biologist at the Animal Welfare Institute. He said that while there might be thousands of Eastern North Pacific gray whales at the moment, those numbers were down sharply over the past decade and the whales faced growing threats from climate change.
Mr. Schubert said there was also concern that if the Makah resumed hunting, other tribes might seek to follow suit, even if their treaties do not explicitly mention whaling. Commercial whaling has been banned by the International Whaling Commission but the issue remains a sensitive point of global dispute, with Japan resuming commercial whaling in 2019.
The Makah, with about 3,000 enrolled members, are based at a reservation in the remote northwest corner of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, where the timber industry endured steep declines at the end of the 20th century and salmon have also grown more scarce. The tribe has sought to diversify its marine fisheries.
Long ago, whale hunts were central to Makah culture, and were surrounded by rituals and ceremonies while serving as the inspiration for songs, dances and basketry. Tribal leaders said resuming the hunts could restore a new generation’s connection with the tribe’s seafaring past, enhance spiritual ties to the ocean and strengthen the community.
“Without that activity, and without being able to access that treaty right that our ancestors provided for us, those areas of our community have suffered in many regards,” Mr. Greene said.
Declines in subsistence living over the years led tribal members to rely on outside food sources and modern diets, leading to concerns about diabetes and heart disease. Tribal leaders said they were hopeful that whaling could help members return to healthier ways.
The tribe’s treaty rights, unlike any other in the nation, explicitly allow for the taking of whales (some Alaska Native communities also are permitted to conduct limited whale hunts). Efforts by the Makah to exercise the treaty provision have been hampered by court challenges and political blowback.
After going decades without hunting, the tribe briefly won legal approval a quarter-century ago, and successfully hunted a gray whale in 1999. Conservation activists tried to halt the efforts, using motorized boats to block the tribe’s hunting canoes from reaching whales or to scare whales away from the area. Hackers took control of the tribe’s website. Whalers received death threats. Protesters in downtown Seattle carried signs that included a slogan: “Save a whale, kill a Makah.”
By the following year, a federal appeals court determined that the environmental impact of the hunting had not been adequately considered and ordered a halt to further hunts.
The Makah will not be allowed to resume whaling immediately; instead, the tribe will have to first enter into an agreement with federal regulators and obtain a hunt permit. There will be restrictions on when hunting can occur, and the approvals could change if the whales’ population becomes too low. Federal approval of the hunt could be challenged in court.
Mr. Greene said the tribe also needed time to prepare its hunters. He said he did not expect a hunt to take place until next year.
During the 1999 whale hunt, tribe members paddled in wood canoes over the course of several days before using a harpoon to snag a 30-foot whale. A high-powered rifle was used to kill the whale before crews towed it to shore. The meat was consumed as part of tribal ceremonies.
The tribe has proposed following a similar method for future hunts.