A federal judge has moved the Makah Tribe a big step forward in its 16-year-quest to resume hunting gray whales. U.S. Coast Guard administrative law judge George Jordan largely rejected animal welfare groups’ complaints that the hunt sought by the Makahs would endanger the whales of the eastern North Pacific. He recommended that the Makah Tribe be allowed to conduct a hunt largely as the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has proposed, though he proposed new restrictions on hunting in the winter and spring to protect a small subpopulation of whales that occasionally wander from the Asian side of the Pacific Ocean into waters off Washington state. >click to read< 10:36
Tag Archives: Administrative Law Judge George Jordan
NOAA Argues to Allow Makah Tribe to Hunt Gray Whales off Washington Again
More than two decades ago, Makah tribal members killed a 30-foot gray whale in the waters off the Olympic Peninsula amid bitter protests from animal-welfare activists. The tribal hunt in May 1999 touched off a protracted legal battle that on Thursday took center stage inside a Seattle federal building. The proceedings over the tribe’s treaty right to hunt gray whales are expected to last more than a week in the courtroom-like setting. >click to read< 23:12
