The Makah appear to have gotten their whaling quota.
The off-again, on-again debate on whether or not the West End tribe would be granted a whaling quota for the next five years was tentatively resolved late Thursday during the International Whaling Commission meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan, according to National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman.
“IWC voted to approve the Makah a quota of 20 whales over five years with no more than five whales in one year, which is exactly as it was before,” Gorman said during a telephone interview late Thursday from his Seattle office.
“The quota they voted on is from 2003 to 2007 — it was a voice vote by consensus.”
The decision comes on the heels of the commission’s decision late Wednesday Pacific time to bar any United States or Russia tribes from whaling.
Gorman did not comment on whether whaling quotas were restored to Eskimos in Alaska or the Chukotka people of Russia.
The commission authorized the five-year quota after the United States and Russia asked it to reconsider extending quotas.
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