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Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling
Animal Welfare Institute Positions on Aboriginal Subsistence
Whaling
Issues at IWC59
Paragraph 13 of the Schedule to the Convention allows for whaling by
aboriginals for subsistence purposes. Native peoples in Greenland,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Russian Federation and the
United States currently engage in aboriginal subsistence whaling.
Greenland is a self-governed territory of Denmark and native
Greenlanders hunt minke, fin whales as well as other marine mammals
for subsistence purposes. The current quota for the years 2003-2007
is 19 fin whales and 187 minke whales. At the 2007 IWC meetings,
Greenland requested a quota for humpback whales as well but the
request was denied. Since whaling records began, 3,381 whales have
been reported as struck and landed by Greenland natives.
Native Bequians of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are currently
issued a quota of humpback whales by the IWC for subsistence
purposes. Natives of this country have also been known to hunt sperm
whales in the past. The current quota is 20 animals over a five-year
period ending in 2008, and 23 whales have been killed by the
Bequians since 1986.
The
Chukotka people of the Russian Federation traditionally hunt gray
whales and bowhead whales. The IWC issues quotas for bowhead and
gray whales, which the Chukotka natives share with the Alaskan
natives of the United States and the Makah tribe of Washington
state, respectively. Since record keeping began, 10 bowhead and
2,381 gray whales have been struck and landed by Russian
natives. The current quotas for bowhead and gray whales landed are
280 and 620, respectively, over the five-year period ending in 2008.
The
United States is a whaling nation, by virtue of the Alaskan natives
who have hunted whales and other marine mammals for subsistence
purposes for millennia. The Alaskan native peoples hunt bowhead
whales by the use of an IWC quota that is shared by the Chukotka
people of the Russian Federation. The Alaskan natives have also
hunted gray whales in the past although they do not share the quota
of gray whales assigned by the IWC. Alaskan natives have struck and
landed 968 of bowhead whales.
The
Makah Tribe of Neah Bay, Washington state was formerly a whaling
tribe that ceased whaling for subsistence purposes in the 1920s. In
1996, the Makah tribe, citing a cultural need and an 1855 treaty
right, succeeded in persuading the U.S. government to request that
the IWC assign it a quota of gray whales. Through a controversial
vote, the quota passed at the 1998 IWC meeting.
In
May 1999, the Makah killed a juvenile gray whale
(WARNING: Graphic footage). A lawsuit against NMFS for failure to
comply with its National Environmental Policy Act responsibilities
and filed in 1997 was finally won on appeal in 2000, and subsequent
hunts were suspended. The Makah tribe has since requested a waiver
of the take moratorium under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and
NMFS is currently preparing the Environmental Impact Assessment that
is required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
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