Activist Prevents Tribe From Killing Gray Whale

Whale hunters from the Makah Indian tribe harpooned a gray whale Thursday but failed to capture it after a protester riding a Jet Ski foiled the hunt that has pitted tribal rights’ supporters against environmentalists trying to protect the giant beasts.

A family of eight Makah paddling a hand-carved cedar-log canoe off Washington’s Olympic Peninsula stalked and speared the whale, which would have been the second taken by the tribe since the 1997 lifting of a 70-year ban imposed to halt over-harvesting.

But the Makah’s prey escaped when an activist with the pro-whale group Ocean Defense International charged the canoe on her water craft, swamping the hunters.

The activist, who violated a U.S. Coast Guard-imposed 500-yard exclusion zone around the canoe, was arrested after a 23-foot Coast Guard boat plowed her craft under the surf as she prepared to make another pass at the Makah canoe.

Environmentalists criticized what they called heavy-handed Coast Guard actions that would all but guarantee a successful hunt.

“We came out here to do our best, but it’s pretty much inevitable because they have the Coast Guard and the government using violent tactics to aid them in killing these great whales,” said Jake Conroy of Ocean Defense International.

A Coast Guard spokesman defended the tactics, saying the collision was accidental and that the activist had clearly endangered the hunters.

“Obviously she was within inches of this canoe, much less 500 yards away,” said Chief Warrant Officer Chris Haley.

The protester, Erin Abbot, was treated at a nearby hospital for a shoulder injury, Haley said, adding that a second activist on a Jet Ski was also arrested for breaching the exclusion zone.

Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission, branded Abbot’s tactic dangerous but vowed that it would not deter the tribe from the hunt.

The Makah, which claim whaling rights from U.S. treaties dating to 1855, are allowed to hunt whales under a 1997 International Whaling Commission decision that lets the tribe kill 20 whales over five years.

They killed their first whale last May.