NEAH BAY — A team of scientists from Cascadia Research has identified the gray whale that was illegally shot and harpooned by five Makah men in September 2007 as CRC-175, one considered to be a resident of the area.
The whale died of its injuries and sank in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Makah Tribal Council said the hunt did not have its permission.
CRC-175 was a frequent visitor to the waters off Neah Bay, with seven sightings there in the 12 years it was observed, the Cascadia report said.
“It was a whale with a very, very long sighting history,” said John Calambokidis, a research biologist and co-founder of Cascadia.
“It turned out to be a fairly well-known whale that was killed.”
The whale was spotted 143 times from northern California to central Vancouver Island, according to the Olympia-based nonprofit research organization.
Difficult identification
“It proved to be a difficult identification in that the Makah biologist came on the scene after the whale had been harpooned” and was sinking, said John Calambokidis, a research biologist with Cascadia Research.
The biologist had to take photographs of the whale’s head instead of the area near its dorsal hump, where whales are typically identified.
A “fortuitous” match was made from markings on the whale’s head that corresponded with photographs taken from another encounter, Calambokidis said.
The whale was identified a few months ago. The report was published in April.
Ryland Bowechop, a Makah Tribal Council member, issued a press release in the wake of the report detailing the identification of the whale.
“It’s old news,” he said.
Andy Noel and Wayne Johnson, both of Neah Bay, were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in the illegal hunt. Johnson was sentenced to five months, and Noel was sentenced to 90 days.
Three other Makah men — Frankie Gonzales, Theron Parker and William Secor — pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count each of violating the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act and placed on two years’ probation.
Friend of whale
Chuck and Margaret Owens of Joyce, co-founders of Peninsula Citizens for the Protection of Whales, said the whale that was killed in 2007, CRC-175, was a friend of a whale they had “adopted” and named.
“We are particularly saddened at the death of whale No. 175, as this whale was a longtime companion of our adopted whale, No. 178, Freedom,” Margaret Owens said in an e-mail to the Peninsula Daily News on Wednesday.
The Owenses also emphasized that the whale lived in the area.
“Ten years ago, the Makah Whaling Commission and National Marine Fisheries Service denied that Washington state resident whales even existed. Now the tribe has admitted that their whalers killed one in September 2007,” the e-mail said.
Treaty right
The 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay secured the Makah’s right to hunt whales. The tribe’s whaling tradition dates back at least 1,500 years.
Whaling provided food, oil, blubber and other products for the tribe, some of which were traded to other tribes and early Europeans.
Whaling was also seen as central to tribal culture.
Tribal members voluntarily stopped hunting whales in 1926 when they became endangered. When the animals came off the endangered species list in 1994, the tribe sought to again exercise its right to whale.
In 1999, the Makah successfully hunted a 30-pound female — the tribe’s first whale in 70 years.
But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2002 that in order to hunt again, the tribe needs a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act. A jury reaffirmed the decision in 2004.
Margaret Owens said the ruling was a win for resident whales.
“Had the Ninth Circuit Court not halted Makah whaling, this small, unique group of whales could have easily been decimated in the taking of the Makah’s 40-whale, 10-year quota,” she said in the e-mail.
“The loss to science and the damage to community relations, tourism and local enjoyment would have been incalculable and still may come to pass,” she said.
In May 2007, the International Whaling Commission granted the Makah a harvest quota of up to 20 whales over five years, with no more than five in one year.
The Makah still must receive a federal waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Hunt proposal limited
In February 2005, the tribe submitted a proposal to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries for a limited waiver from the act that limits the hunt to migratory gray whales in the tribe’s traditional hunting grounds between Dec. 1 and May 31.
Council Vice Chairman Micah McCarty said Thursday that the tribal proposal has not changed.
A federal 900-page draft environmental impact statement was released in May 2008. It is available at NOAA’s regional Web site, www.nwr.noaa.gov.
NOAA Fisheries is reviewing public comment as it prepares a final draft.
“Our EIS is moving through the process,” said Chad Bowechop, manager of Makah marine affairs.
McCarty said NOAA fisheries has not indicated when a final draft would be prepared.
He declined to comment on the identification of the whale illegally hunted in 2007.
A spokesman with NOAA Fisheries Northwest Region office in Seattle did not return requests for comment on Thursday.
Calambokidis said it was no surprise the whale was a northwest resident.
Biologists had assumed the whale killed in 2007 was part of the Pacific Coast feeding aggregation — one of about 200 that feed in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and inland over the summer and early fall.
He said the positive match can be viewed as a valuable test case that lends credence to proposed limits on hunting resident whales.
“The main concern is there’s a fairly large overall gray whale population, about 20,000,” Calambokidis said.
“So when you estimate the impacts on a population that large, you tend to conclude there are fairly minimal impacts.”
Under the Makah proposal, if a resident whale is landed it counts against the “allowable by-catch level.”
If that level is met, the hunt is suspended for the year.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
