FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Federal Government and Makah Collude to Kill Gray Whale

Contact: Bill Moss, WWP President, (360) 561-7492, wwp@worldwhalepolice.org

The World Whale Police (WWP) condemns the torturous slaughter of the gray whale off the northwest coast of Washington State last Saturday (September 8). Furthermore, we condemn the long history of collusion between the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS), the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and the Makah whaling commission, which made this latest slaughter possible.

NMFS, USCG, and the Makah have been regular partners in crime, violating federal law together since the beginning days of the gray whale hunt in 1998. So says the 9th circuit court of appeals, which ruled that the government violated federal law (the Marine Mammal Protection Act) by allowing the hunt to proceed without first determining its environmental impact. We encourage anyone who thinks the hunt is legal (or ever was legal) to review the final court of appeals ruling on Anderson vs. Evans, which NMFS did not challenge. In short, the Makah whale hunt has never been legal.

Moreover, the way the latest killing was conducted and the cavalier attitude of the killers speak to total disrespect and disregard for the suffering of the creature. According to WWP President Bill Moss, “There has been a world class crime committed here in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. The WWP insists on justice for this innocent creature. We must know why NMFS allowed this killing.” WWP believes that NMFS and USCG are both complicit in the whale slaughter that occurred last Saturday.

NMFS and USCG and the Makah whalers have long disdained the law and the campaigners who seek to uphold the law and protect whales from harm. The latest killing is just another episode in the ongoing saga of collusion to challenge the Marine Mammal Protection Act and ultimately relax restrictions on whaling in the U.S.

If the Makah resume whaling, the World Whale Police calls on activists everywhere to join us in Neah Bay to protest the unnecessary deaths of these magnificent gray whales.
___________________________________

The World Whale Police is a nonprofit public education and outreach organization. Our mission is to educate the public about the necessity for marine mammal protection and to raise public awareness of safety through lectures, literature, and on-site responses to incidents of threats to marine mammals. For more information, visit us online at http://www.worldwhalepolice.org.

- ### -