Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
According to a study published Monday in the National Academy of Sciences the success story of the Pacific Gray Whale seems not to have been a success at all, but a gross miscalculation.
So it seems the Gray Whale should never have been removed from the endangered species list. As we have written about before the Gray Whale really is being starved out of existence. Global warming is taking its toll on the whale’s food supply.
The study concludes the original population of the Pacific Gray Whale was probably underestimated and that instead of 20,000 to 30,000 Gray Whales there may have closer to 100,000 whales.
When scientists figured that a population of 20,000 was close to a normal count they removed it from the endangered species list in 1994. They were wrong when in 1999-2000 the Pacific Gray Whales began dying in their assumption it was nature thinning the herd.
Now we have 80,000 Pacific Gray Whales unaccounted for, Jeff Breiwick, from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle is left wondering what happened to the 80,000 gray whales mistakenly unaccounted for in the historic population numbers.
Breiwick says computer models and historic documents used to estimate the level of whale hunting since the 1600’s would mean about 3 whales a day had been killed for 4 centuries. He wants to know where the evidence of that mortality can be found.
Everyone does agree that the new estimates on past populations indicate something very bad is happening now.
Maybe this new research was one reason for the hold up on granting the Whaling waiver to the Makah tribe!
Labels: Global Warming, Gray Whale, Grey Whale, Makah, Ocean Mammals, Sea Mammals
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Gray Whale Update!
Monday, September 10, 2007
As is common when stories break there are several conflicting sides to this one. More information coming points to the fact that the Gray Whale that was shot by Makah tribe members was in fact intangled in fishing lines at the time it was shot.
As explained at the Makah website, modern day hunting is done with a spear from a 36 foot canoe.which is carved from a single cedar log. A harpooner in the bow of the canoe uses a steel harpoon mounted on a wooden shaft about 7 feet long. This is connected by ropes to buoys and then to the canoe. A rifleman using a .50 caliber rifle is then expected to ‘dispatch’, immediately kill, the whale by shooting it in the back or base of the skull.
Clearly the manner in which the Makah’s have outlined, as their methods for taking a whale, are the same reasons conflicting reports are being recounted by witness’s.
In aerial photos taken of this incident there are clearly orange buoys strings behind the injured Gray Whale, also a harpoon is clearly visible. Are these buoys in fact those that would be connected to the actual harpoon, and not a fishing net?
Also are the reports of the whale being shot with a .50 caliber machine gun in fact in error and did the shots come from the Makah chaseboat and a .50 caliber rifle?
In any case reports are that the whale lived an agonizing 10 hours after being shot before dying. Was the slow death of the Gray Whale due to the interrupted hunt by the Coast Guard? All is speculation at this point, but one thing is clear; the whale should never have been allowed by any party to suffer a 10 hour death.
One thing is clear: This is a bad deal for all involved.
Photo Credit: Barney Burke/Special to the P-I
Labels: Gray, Gray Whale, Grey Whale, Makah, Ocean, Ocean Mammals, Sea Mammals, Whales
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Conflicting Stories Over Makah Tribe and Saturday’s Killing of Gray Whale
Sunday, September 9, 2007
The AP is reporting that a Gray Whale had been shot by a machine gun near the western tip of Washington State.
The Coast Guard believes members of the Makah tribe shot and harpooned the Gray Whale on Saturday morning. The Whale after having been attacked did not die and is now limping its wounded way back out to sea.
As the Makah’s are happy to tell you at their own website “Whaling has been one of our traditions for over 1,500 years and is a right secured to us by treaty…”
The Makah’s also believe that many of their health problems come from the lack of Sea Mammal Meat in their diet. Give the Makah the genetic link to ‘needing blubber’ in their diet, but take the right to their 50-caliber machine guns away from them if this story turns out to be true.
The Makah are allowed to take 5 Gray Whales per year as part of their ‘cultural and subsistence rights’. I’m no expert on Makah Culture, but I’ll guarantee 1.500 years ago the brave hunters of the Makah Tribe were NOT using machine guns to bring in their hunt.
It seems to me the term ‘culture’ needs to be revisited and revisited in a HUGE way!
The Makah website is also happy to point out in their FAQ section “We will conduct it (the hunt) in a way that is as consistent as possible with our traditional manner of whale hunting, but also with the requirement of the International Whaling Commission and the Marine Mammal Protection Act that the killing of the whale be done in as humane a manner as possible, and at the same time with as much safety as possible for our hunters.”
Sadly many people have been trying to turn up the ‘RACE CARD’ when it comes to the Makah and whaling. The problem with stirring a pot of waste until it comes to a boil is that more often than not, that waste will splatter back upon the one that is stirring the pot. Cruelty is not owned by any particular Race and should be chided when and where ever it is found.
We can only hope that the initial reports of this incident are in error.
Just as shooting fish in a barrel is part of no ones culture, machine gunning down and wounding an animal without killing it is one of the cruelest acts imaginable and hopefully not a part of any ones culture. We hope this act was committed by ’street gangs running rampant’ in the waters off the coast of Washington State.
Labels: Gray, Gray Whale, Grey Whale, Makah, Ocean, Ocean Mammals, Sea Mammals, US Coast Guard, Washington State, accident at sea
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
California Gray Whale Shot by Machine Gun?
