Lee Metcalf: “Last year I filed an appeal, along with several co-plaintiffs, to overturn the decision made by U.S. District Court…”

“Last year I filed an appeal, along with several co-plaintiffs, to overturn the decision made by U.S. District Court Judge Franklin Burgess to allow whaling by the Makah Indian tribe. Today a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit United States Court of Appeals in Seattle heard the case, and I hope they will make the correct decision and stop the outdated and unnecessary practice of whaling by the Makahs. Everyone who understands this issue knows that this is the first step toward returning to the terrible commercial exploitation of these marine mammals. In the papers filed by the Makahs with NOAA, they refused to deny that this was a move toward renewal of commercial whaling. It is important to understand that the International Whaling Commission has never sanctioned the Makah whale hunt. Under the International Whaling Convention, of which the United States is signatory, it has only been legal to hunt whales for scientific or aboriginal subsistence purposes. The tribe clearly has no nutritional need to kill whales. In the face of strong IWC, the International Whaling Commission, opposition to the original Makah proposal, the U.S. delegation ignored years of opposition to whale-killing and cut a deal with the Russian government in a backdoor effort to find a way to grant the Makah the right to kill whales.”