A .50-Caliber Gun For Whale Hunting?

Coast Guard Finds Dying Gray Whale Off Washington Coast, Suspect Makah Tribe Members

(CBS/AP)  A California gray whale that was harpooned and shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state has died, officials said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning.

A preliminary report said the whale was shot with a .50-caliber machine gun, Mark Oswell, a spokesman for the law enforcement arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said.

Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said the whale disappeared beneath the surface in the evening, dragging buoys that had been attached to the harpoon, and did not resurface. A biologist working for the Makah Indian tribe declared it dead, Eggert said.

Tribe members were being held by the Coast Guard but had not been charged, Oswell said.

The suspects could face civil penalties of up to $20,000 each and up to a year in jail, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Criminal prosecution under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act is rare, Gorman noted. "While it remains an option, I think we have to finish our investigation before we make any kind of call like that," Gorman told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Coast Guard officials created a 1,000-yard safety zone around the injured whale, which was shot about a mile east of Neah Bay in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The whale had begun heading to sea Saturday afternoon, Oswell said.

Although the tribe has subsistence fishing rights to kill whales, Oswell said preliminary information indicates the whale may have been shot illegally.

"We allow native hunts for cultural purposes. However, this does not appear to be of that nature so far," he said.

The Makah Indian Tribe's whaling commission said it did not authorize the killing.

"The commission had not reviewed this," Chad Bowechop, a member of the tribe's whaling commission, told the Peninsula Daily News.

Tribal officials did not immediately return calls from the AP, but the tribe's chairman, Ben Johnson, told The Seattle Times that tribal whalers were out practicing hunting skills Saturday in keeping with their treaty rights to hunt whales - rights that have been tangled in the courts for several years.

The federal government removed the gray whale from the endangered species list in 1994. Five years later, with a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service, Makah tribal members killed their first whale in seven decades.

Animal welfare activists sued, leading to a court order that the tribe must obtain a waiver under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to continue hunting whales.

John McCarty, a former tribal whaling commission member who has been an advocate of the Makah's right to resume whaling under an 1855 treaty, said the tribe had been working to obtain the waiver and that the process was close to completion.

"I don't know why they did this. It's terrible," McCarty told The Times. "I think the anti-whalers will be after us in full force, and we look ridiculous. Like we can't manage our own people, we can't manage our own whale."

Gorman confirmed that the fisheries service was nearing a decision on the tribe's waiver request. "The general feeling was that we were getting toward the end of a fairly long road and that our decision about whether or not to grant a waiver would be made fairly soon," Gorman said.

Gorman said he does not believe the killing of the whale will affect the tribe's waiver application.

Witnesses said the whale was harpooned by 9:30 a.m. Saturday a few miles east of Neah Bay and that five men on two small boats fired shots from what sounded like a high-caliber rifle.

Coast Guard officers who detained the men confiscated a high-powered Weatherby rifle investigators believe was used to kill the whale, Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said.

Oswell told the Peninsula Daily News investigators are looking into whether the whale was killed because it had gotten entangled in a fishing net and couldn't be cut loose.

However, Coast Guard Petty Officer David Marin said his agency had no information indicating the whale had gotten trapped in netting before it was shot.

Environmentalists suggested criminal charges are warranted.

"This is a crime. It's illegal and should be prosecuted," Will Anderson, who fought against Makah whaling on behalf of Friends of the Gray Whale and other groups, told The Times.

The Makah Tribe has more than 1,000 members and is based in Neah Bay.

[serpent62]

First I would like to say that I am not opposed to hunting, and I am a gun owner, and I have shot a M2HB in combat. HOWEVER in this instance if someone be it white, black, native, or any race for that matter takes an animal out of it''s regulated hunting season just for the purpose to "kill" it or to prove a point to the world then I believe that is wrong.

Now if a culture still wants to practice a traditional hunting skill (I.E. whale hunting with a harpoon out of a canoe, salmon fishing with dip net''s, chase Buffalo off a cliff, ect..) then fine.. I can live with that.

As long as it is governed by a able body such as a tribal councel, or L/E body.

[serpent62]

Darkmeat,

This is not a case of a native hunting party in the dead of winter armed with a single shot muzzle loader looking for the last scraps of meat to survive. These people are afforded U.S. Govt money, exclusive hunting and fishing rights that in most cases are not brought to the attention of the rest of the american people, not to mention the world. If it were learned how much money each person was given in both cash and property by the U.S. Govt and the tribe why would there be hunting like this allowed? I dont see it as culture, just a means to push another species toward the END..

All .50cal''s are not muzzle loaders! in fact the witness accounts state that approximately 20-21 shots were fired. I dont know that many people that can shoot,load and fire 20 times in a short period of time on a pitching boat deck with a muzzle loader! besides, when did historical tribes chase whales in small gasoline powered boats, armed with high power rifles, harpoons, plastic bouy''s and the will to totally disobey the law that governs the land?... That "YES" as stated in the news article that the tribal councel went along with. Besides when do "Practice hunts" happen with live ammo&guns, and harpoons??
If I recall the Pt. Elliot Treaty also states that if more than 5 members of a tribe leave the reservation together, a U.S. Marshall must be present. Because it consitutes a WAR party! Do we need to place a call?? clearly we have weapons and a deadly intent to disobey the law!!

[my2centss]

MityWhity at 11:24 AM : Sep 10, 2007

Well said.

[Krazcarl]

Darkmeat4..I think you hit the nail on the on the head on the up side he makes us aware were sane. He is becomming a drag and with such long ramling post I agree he patheticaly lonely or stupid or both most of us just pass over his post just check the sighn in name.

[klingon69]

- A 12 ga shotgun is technically a .50 cal (bit larger 1/2")
12 guage are .68 caliber.

[olgreyghost]

When did Weatherby start making .50 caliber rifles and where can I get one?

[mitywhity]

Yeah, I have been partial to cute mammals who live in an aquatic environment. I don''t think they should be killed either. They have no way to fight back and just because some people say they have a right to kill them and it is protected by law doesn''t sway my right to an opinion about it. I think it''s just horrible. Imagine being killed with a pair of scissors through the skull and having your brains sucked out. God avenges the blood of innocents.

[kennedy7955]

No more god-$%^&, f____ing whale hunting! Nothing more needs to be said.

[pupspop]

Culture Smulture! If a bunch of crazy people claim something as their cultural heritage and it''s nuts, it''s nuts if it''s one person or a million people. A preponderance of numbers does not make a thing right. A nut is not a nut because he''s nuts, he''s nuts because he''s a nut.

[crystalblue3]

"Always been a little partial to whales. Believe in native rights.But this was like idiotic drivers that hit animals for fun. The penalty should be quick and severe. Men that KILL for fun are dangerous or brain damaged or lack morals."

I completely agree with you, crzmeat. Also...I have a hard time calling this a "tribal hunt" for "culture purposes" when they use a modern gun to do it. Doesn''t make sense to me.

Hope they get the stiffest penalty possible. Poor whale.