WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s not just the one whale that died off Neah Bay on Sept. 8.
It’s not even the maximum five whales the Makah propose to kill annually if they receive a waiver from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
It’s the international consequences of the tribe’s return to whaling, Naomi Rose said Thursday from her office at the Humane Society of the United States.
“If it was just about five whales, my organization probably would have had different priorities,” she said.
Rose, a biologist, was putting a larger frame around her reaction to the Makah Tribal Court’s deferred prosecution of illegal whale hunters on Wednesday.
Each of the five men paid $20 in court costs, with charges to be dropped if they meet conditions a federal magistrate will outline June 30 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.