By Jonathan Allen
(Reuters) – After a decades-long struggle, a Native American tribe won the right to resume its hunting traditions off the coast of Washington state as federal regulators on Thursday granted a waiver allowing the Makah people to take up to 25 gray whales over a decade to hunt.
As part of the 1855 treaty with the U.S. government, the Makah tribe secured the right to continue hunting whales, a tradition they say is core to their spiritual beliefs and practices. But the practice was hampered by 20th century conservation measures.
In 2002, a federal court ruled that the tribe must obtain a waiver from a whaling moratorium under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.
On Thursday, after decades of lawsuits, environmental reviews, criminal prosecutions of tribal hunters, public meetings and discussions with federal authorities and the International Whaling Commission, the U.S. government granted the waiver.
“The actions taken today honor the treaty rights of the Makah Tribe and their cultural whaling tradition that dates back over a thousand years and is fundamental to their identity and heritage,” Janet Coit, assistant administrator of NOAA Fisheries, said in a statement.
The waiver allows the tribe “a limited subsistence and ceremonial hunt” of up to 25 gray whales in the eastern Pacific Ocean for a period of ten years, although the tribe must sign agreements and obtain a permit from the Fisheries Department. They will not be able to hunt more than two to three whales in one year under the International Whaling Commission quota.
Timothy Greene, chairman of the Makah Tribal Council, said it took an unfairly long time to obtain the waiver, but the tribe celebrated Thursday’s decision.
“Whaling remains vital to the identity, culture, livelihood and spirituality of the Makah people, and we consider the gray whale sacred,” he said in a statement. “In the time since our last successful hunt in 1999, we have lost many elders who knew our whaling customs, and another generation of Makahs has grown up without the opportunity to exercise our Treaty rights.”
The eastern North Pacific gray whale was removed from the endangered species list in 1994. NOAA Fisheries estimates the population has grown to 19,000 gray whales, based on 2023-2024 surveys.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by David Gregorio)
