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Urgent need for money to fuel boats   

Sea Shepherd offers to withdraw fleet if.....

Civitas' letter to Makah

Civitas' letter to editors

October 16, 1998

YOUR CREDIT CARD CAN FUEL THE BOATS 

OF THE WHALE DEFENDERS

There is an urgent need for money to fuel the boats being used to defend gray whales from slaughter.  This is especially true of  the strategically-important, fast boats of the Canadian Anti-whaling Society. Their speed consumes a lot of fuel but their fast response time makes them very effective, so effective that other groups also in need of fuel seek donations on behalf of the Canadian volunteers who have the additional handicap of a depressed Canadian dollar.

Call Olsen's Marina (360-963-2311) and tell them you want to donate money to fuel the boats of the Canadian Anti-whaling Society.  Have your credit card handy.

If possible, notify them by email how much you have contributed so they know how much fuel they can buy:  <waws@antiwhaling.com>.

Alternatively, you can leave word with PAWS 425-787-2500 + 841.

Many groups and individuals have come together to prevent migrating whales from approaching Neah Bay, to protect any that do or at least record the dreadful deed if the Makah wound or kill a whale according to their individual agenda.  The Makah have pledged not to kill any of the "resident" whales in the bay.  Like any naval campaign, this effort requires a lot of land-based support.  People have given up vacation time to provide it.  Others have brought their boats, some as small as kayaks,  to provide a protective presence.  Makes you think of Dunkirk.

Organizations at the scene include, but are by no means limited to Canadian Anti-whaling Society, People's Animal Welfare Society (PAWS),  Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Sedna Sea Alliance.

October 13, 1998

SEA SHEPHERD OFFERS TO WITHDRAW FLEET IF ANYONE CAN PRODUCE DOCUMENT CONFIRMING IWC CONSENT

In a unique attempt to counteract media claims that the International Whaling Commission gave the Makah permission to kill five gray whales, Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society announced that the organization would withdraw its fleet and objections to Makah whaling if anyone could produce a legal document showing that the IWC sanctioned the proposed slaughter.

Civitas letter to Makah Tribal Council

Please express your thoughts to them too.

Makah Tribal Council                                          September 26, 1998

PO Box 115

Neah Bay WA 98357

Dear Council Members;

As a fellow American, I want you to know that I deplore the treatment of the original Americans by European immigrants long before any of you or I were born.  I cannot read the words of Chief Seattle with dry eyes as I realize how the Europeans betrayed his religion and spiritual generosity.  He was wise and right. They were evil and wrong.

Now the shoe seems to be on the other foot.  People around the earth, not  just Europeans, have united to save and live in peace with the whale nations, and it is the Makah, some of you, anyway, who would destroy this progress.  I can sympathize with President Clinton's attempt to right past wrongs, but not at the expense of creating another wrong and undoing the good that has been done to preserve and make peace with the whales.

You should know by now that people are beginning to be aware of your alliance with Japan to slaughter whales, despite protestations of cultural need, and certainly not on any need for subsistence, which is the only justification for killing whales in the opinion of the IWC and anyone who has been following this issue.

I sympathize with cultural revival and suggest that there are many other aspects to your culture that could be resurrected.  As for whaling, the practice of purification rituals could be revived along with paddling those great canoes out to greet the whales rather than kill them.  This would bring acclaim to the Makah rather than the disdain that would follow killing.  It would also avoid introducing unneeded violence and cruelty into your society.

The eyes of the world are upon you, and it up to you whether you will emerge as citizens of the world or a greedy commercial interest.

Speaking for myself, I will lose whatever pride I have in my American citizenship if you turn the United States into a whaling nation.

This letter was written before Heidi Tiura made her offer to assist the Makah in developing an outdoor recreation business featuring whale watching.  Maybe you'd like to write and express your interest, if sincere, in participating in such a program or express other thoughts you may have.  The more people they hear from the better.

US TO BECOME OUTLAW WHALING NATION? 

Civitas letter to editors    October 10, 1998

Media reports have inaccurately represented the Makah Amerindian tribe's proposed whale slaughter as being sanctioned by the International Whaling commission (IWC).  I have heard from both British and Australian delegates present at the Monaco meeting where this was supposed to have happened that this is not the case.

Washington Congressman Jack Metcalf's written rport states: "Contrary to press reports, the US delegation (representing the views of the Clinton administration) absolutely failed in getting any IWC authorization for the Makah whale hunt."

The IWC recognizes "subsistence need" of some tribes, e.g. Inuit living in the far north, to kill whales for food, but not the professed "cultural need" of other tribes who are not dependent on whale flesh for food.

The supposed authorization comes from a back door arrangement between the Russian and American delegates in which five highly-endangered bowhead whales from the quota of Alaskan Inuit were transferred to the Siberian Chukchi tribe, who kill gray whales, nominally for subsistence but primarily to feed foxes on a Russian fur farm.  In return, five gray whales from the Chukchi quota were transferred to the United States for use by the Makah, which, if the Makah kill, will make the US one of the outlaw whaling nations (Japan, Norway, Russia, Iceland).

Ironically, probably because gray whales are bottom feeders, their flesh is not very palatable.  The flesh of bowheads, on the other hand, is favored by people who eat sea mammals, which may be part of the reason the bowhead population has not recovered from 19th century commercial whaling.  An IWC scientfic committee has suggested that even the Alaskan Inuit slaughter is more than the species can sustain.  The upshot of the Russian/American maneuver is that the bowheads are likely to lose five additional members every year.

The worst of it is that other aboriginal tribes worldwide, 13 in British Columbia alone, egged on and abetted by Japanese and Norwegian whaling interests, are poised to assert their right to kill whales for "cultural needs" but really to supply the Japanese demand for whale flesh which sells for c. $30 a pound in Japan.  Despite recent denials, earlier pronouncements by the Makah indicate that they, too, intend to graduate to commercial as opposed to their professed "cultural" whaling.

Not all the Makah agree.  A group of elders took out an ad opposing the kill in a Washington newspaper.  Micah McCarty, the Makah's first team harpoonist has withdrawn from this year's hunt to consider what his ancestors want and how whaling will affect the Makah's place in history.  The pro-whaling tribal council has indicated that it intends to proceed with the killing, however.

The responsibility for helping the Makah assert their right to kill whales as granted in an 1855 treaty lies squarely with the Clinton administration, a much greater offense against the world's people than the president's personal peccadilloes.