And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: DATE: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 06:09:11 From: "Frank Lafountaine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.seattle-pi.com/national/whal17.shtml Gray whale count of 26,600 gives the green light to Makah hunting Wednesday, March 17, 1999 By MIKE BARBER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER The population of eastern North Pacific gray whales continues to rebound, all but assuring the Makah Indians the right to hunt again as their ancestors did some 70 years ago. The latest estimates, released yesterday, put the number of gray whales at 26,600, according to the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. The estimate was presented in a review required by the Endangered Species Act following the gray whales' removal from the endangered species list in 1994. The first day of a two-day review of gray whale research yesterday involved nearly 30 representatives from conservation groups and U.S. and Mexican government agencies. Many have been keeping tabs since the 1960s on the whales' migrations between Alaska and Mexico. The task group will recommend continuing monitoring for another five years, ending the monitoring, or reclassifying the whales' status. Gray whales have been at the center of a controversy between environmental rights and native rights since they were removed from the endangered species listing in 1994. The Makahs, whose religion and culture are tied to whale hunting, then invoked their 1855 treaty rights to resume hunting the animals. The Makahs set out last October to hunt whales in a cedar canoe armed with a hand-thrown harpoon and high-caliber rifle, required by authorities to ensure a quick kill, but to date have killed none of the animals. While tribal politics played a role in delaying the hunt, so did the failure of migrating whales to appear off Cape Flattery by late November or early December, before foul winter weather set in. Whale observers yesterday said the southbound migration happened about three weeks later than usual. Indications are that it also happened farther offshore than the typical northbound migration. "We saw them start to migrate in the first part of December, and then didn't see them," said Bruce Mate of Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center. "What happened is that the animals seemed to make up for lost time, and there were groups farther offshore than usual." Alisa Schulman-Janiger of the American Cetacean Society said last year's whale count off California was the highest since 1987. Observations indicate that the whales migrate in pulses, or cluster patterns, she said. John Calambokidis of the Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia waded into the controversy between whale protesters and Makah over "migratory" whales, which the Makah are allowed to hunt, and "residential" whales, which tend to remain in one area to feed, and which the tribe cannot hunt. Studies in 1996, 1997 and 1998 indicate those animals that seem to hang around do have "site fidelity," but also have a broader range of movement. Among so-called residents identified off the Washington coast, one has been spotted near Sitka, Alaska, two off Northern California, five off Oregon, while more than 40 others move freely between areas in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, off the Washington coast, and off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. "These animals could be in many areas we haven't searched in past years," he said. The latest gray whale population estimate, based on a variety of observations of the whales' southbound migration off California, is similar to estimates of 23,100 in 1993-94 and 22,200 in 1995-96 surveys. Day and night counts indicated the animals swam further offshore during the day than night migrations, and swam faster at night than during the day, said Wayne Perryman of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif. The removal of grays from endangered species listing has been contentious. They were depleted by commercial whaling to as few at 4,000 in the late 19th century. Douglas Demaster, chairman of the task group, said the wealth of data gathered over a long time for gray whales is "rare for long-lived vertebrates, and even more rare for endangered species." The whales, protected since 1946, have been counted 19 times since 1967, with much of the count from the same shore station in California. Shore-based data and other estimates indicate that the gray whale population has "recovered to a level near its pre-exploitation size," DeMaster wrote in his presentation. P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 206-448-8018. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
