NEAH BAY — The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday to deny the Makah tribe’s petition with the federal government to reconsider its Nov. 26, 2003, ruling that blocked the tribe’s treaty right to hunt gray whales.
“We now have two choices — take it to the Supreme Court or go through the permitting process,” said Makah Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson Jr.
“I don’t know which way we are going to go. We have to talk to the lawyers and the community to see what is next.”
The 22-member Makah Whaling Commission will meet Wednesday to discuss the ruling.
“This decision further validates our longstanding concerns,” co-plaintiffs Margaret and Chuck Owens of Joyce said in a written statement Monday.
“Washington state’s resident gray whales, the emotional and financial effects to the communities of the Olympic Peninsula and the global impact of such a hunt will now receive the greater scrutiny of a full (environmental-impact statement).”
The Owenses founded Peninsula Citizens for the Protection of Whales and joined other whaling protesters in the lawsuit.
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the U.S government and Makah tribe’s petition to rehear the Anderson v. Evans case in full.
The court also ruled that “no further petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc (by the full court) will be accepted in this case.”