Protester Injured At Whale Hunt
A jet-skiing protester was stuck by a Coast Guard boast Thursday as she tried to prevent Makah tribesmen from conducting a traditional whale hunt.
Video shot by Seattle television stations showed the protester swooping in on her watercraft as the carved wooden canoe closed in on a gray whale. The Makah had just thrown a harpoon, which did not stick in the whale.
Protesters are required to stay 500 yards away from the Makah whalers and their canoe.
As the Makah attempted to maneuver for another shot, the protester rushed by the canoe, spraying those aboard with her wake. As the watercraft turned, it was overtaken by a Coast Guard 21-foot inflatable boat.
The two collided, and both the watercraft and the protester appeared to go under the Coast Guard inflatable. The protester surfaced a moment later about 20 feet from her watercraft.
She was taken aboard the Coast Guard boat and then flown by helicopter to an area hospital for treatment for a shoulder injury, the Coast Guard said.
The name of the protester was not immediately released.
Coast Guard officials said a second protester also was arrested Thursday morning and that a second personal watercraft was confiscated. Protesters said they would resort to using larger boats to interfere with the hunt.
Members of the tribe said Thursday they will not be deterred by newly aggressive tactics by protesters.
"We hope she's OK, but it's unfortunate that she would violate the exclusionary zone" around the canoe, said Makah Whaling Commission Chairman Keith Johnson. "She'll have to accept the consequences of her actions."
Johnson expressed concern that the protesters would put themselves in danger by moving in front of the whales. The whalers on board the Makah canoe are carrying harpoons and a large-caliber hunting rifle, used to quickly dispatch the animal after it is speared.
"Once we throw the first harpoon the best thing the protesters can do is stay away. Keeping us away just prolongs the agony of the whale," said Johnson.
Protesters expressed outrage at the Coast Guard's actions, but told KING-TV in Seattle they would continue to interrupt the hunt. They have been required by the Coast Guard to stay nearly a mile away from the Makah canoes, but have disobeyed that order.
As of early Thursday afternoon, the Makah hunters had closed in on at least one other whale, which dove before they could throw another harpoon.
Tribal leaders say the seasonal hunt, a centuries-old tradition that resumed in the fall of 1998 after a 70-year hiatus, is vital to preserving the identity of the tribe at the tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula.
"Whaling has been a tradition of the Makah for more than 2000 years," reads a tribal website. "We would like to restore the meat of the whale to our diet. Many of us also believe that problems besetting our young people stem from lack of discipline and pride. We believe that the restoration of whaling ill help to restore that discipline and pride."
Anti-whaling activists, however, fear the Makah hunt could open the door to a worldwide renewal of commercial whaling.
A whaling crew with representatives from several families took the tribe's first whale last May 17. Now the hunts are being conducted by individual Makah families, as tradition dictates.
Five families have been preparing to hunt as the gray whales migrate from birthing grounds in Mexico to feeding grounds off Alaska, Keith Johnson said.
The International Whaling Commission has allocated the Makah 20 whales through 2004, a maximum of five per year.