Makah Tribe Wins Federal Approval to Hunt Gray Whales

The Makah Tribe, which has long sought approval to resume hunting whales off the Washington State coast, won approval from federal regulators on Thursday to harvest as many as 25 gray whales over the next decade.

The decision from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a crucial victory for the tribe in its decades-long quest to resume whaling traditions that were enshrined as a right in an 1855 treaty. Tribal leaders have said the whaling is needed for the tribe’s culture and welfare at a time when each is under threat.

The United States largely outlawed whaling more than 50 years ago because many species had been hunted to the edge of extinction. Since then, the Eastern North Pacific gray whales that the tribe plans to hunt have made a population comeback, and were removed from the endangered species list in 1994.

Still, conservation groups and others have vehemently fought against the hunts, arguing that the whales need continuing protection, that the intelligent and social mammals would suffer from the hunts, and that some species with smaller populations could be placed at risk.

The Makah, with about 3,000 enrolled members, are based at a reservation in the remote northwest corner of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, where the timber industry endured steep declines at the end of the 20th century and salmon have also grown more scarce. The tribe has sought to diversify its marine fisheries, some of which have been declining, and to restore its whaling past.