On Friday, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a new, draft assessment of the whale hunt. It seeks to establish a quota for the next two years of hunting by families of the 1,500-member tribe whose whaling tradition stretches back centuries but was stopped earlier this century by commercial exploitation worldwide.
With the gray whale population on the rise, however, the species is no longer in danger of dying out. In 1994, the government removed it from the endangered species list and in 1999, the tribe hunted its first whale in over 70 years, exercising rights reserved to them in a 19th-century treaty. According to the assessment, the Pacific gray whale population is estimated to be 26,600. Under four scenarios laid out by the government, the tribe could take as many as five whales per year for the next two years or none at all. The first option would limit hunting by tribal members to the whales' annual migrations between Alaska and Mexico. The conditions would be similar to those under which the 1999 and 2000 hunts -- when no whales were killed -- occurred. The second would allow hunting at all times of the year, including a limited hunt outside the migration period. A third would place no limits on when or how the tribe would hunt, with a maximum of five whales killed. The final option would not set a quota for hunting at all. But the government says the tribe could sue in order to enforce its treaty rights or the tribe could continue to hunt whales should no quota be issued. Public comments are being accepted in writing by the NMFS until February 16. A hearing will also be held February 1 in Seattle, Washington, to discuss the assessment. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Ocean Defense International, opponents of the hunt, are currently suing the state of Washington for allowing the hunt to take place. Get the Draft Environmental Assessment: