NEAH BAY — It may take a year for the Makah Tribe to resume whaling — probably longer due to lawsuits — through a process that will start in October.
Brian Gorman, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said writing an environmental impact statement could take a year.
It might be months more to grant the tribe a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, he said.
“The unknown here is litigation,” Gorman said Thursday, “because there will be litigation, I assure you, every step of the way.”
The tribe’s request to resume hunting will face three public “scoping meetings” in October as the Fisheries Service prepares an environmental impact statement.
The meetings will include presentations and small-group work sessions designed for people to “constructively assist” the Fisheries Service in writing a draft statement, according to the service and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
People also can send comments by fax or e-mail.
The Makah seek to resume whaling for subsistence and cultural purposes.
Tribe members last killed a whale on May 17, 1999, after not whaling for about 80 years. A series of lawsuits precluded further hunts.
