NEAH BAY — A day after a federal appeals court denied the Makah tribe’s petition for a new hearing on its right to hunt gray whales, a plaintiff in the suit said he hopes the case does not make it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We hope that this really represents the final chapter in the United States government’s wrong-headed attempt in whale killing,” Michael Markarian, president of the Fund for Animals, said Tuesday.
His comments come after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday handed down the decision not to re-hear a petition from the Makah and the federal government in support of the tribe’s whaling rights.
Makah Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson Jr. and the tribe’s attorney, John Arum, expressed disappointment over the ruling earlier this week. The 22-member Makah Whaling Commission planned to meet today to discuss the court’s decision.
A three-judge panel from the court ruled for the third time that the U.S. government, charged with sponsoring the tribe’s whale hunts, violated the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 by not properly assessing the environmental impact a whale hunt might have, and did not satisfy the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.
“We conclude that there are substantial questions remaining as to whether the Tribe’s whaling plans will have a significant effect on the environment,” Judge Marsha S. Berzon wrote in Monday’s opinion.
The complicated, 52-page opinion opens with a quote from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and sets the stage for a “modern day struggle over whale hunting.”
The Makah, for whom whaling is a custom that dates back numerous generations, were guaranteed the right through the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay with the United States. It is the only agreement between the United State and an American Indian tribe that specifically protects the right to hunt whales.