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Sign your name to... Put
your name on the list to oppose this slaughter! This is a call to everyone who loves whales: You are needed in Neah Bay, Washington, now! The Makah plan to start killing Gray whales in October. Sea Shepherd's Gray Whale Protecion Campaign is going on now. Our long-range ship Sea Shepherd III and coastal patrol vessel EdwardAbbey are now on site, in opposition the planned whale hunt. Sea Shepherd has organized the local Whale Guardians Network to coordinate the actions necessary to head off the hunt. We need your financial support, your physical presence, or your efforts to spread the word on what is about to happen off the coast ofWashington! The "ceremonial" element of this hunt is being promoted to make the killing more palatable to the public. The real goal of the hunt is to use the "aboriginal" loopholes in the international whaling moratorium togain a foothold for a new era of commercial whale meat trade. Through the recent formation of the World Whaling Council in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Japan is using native groups who feel they have the right to kill whales as front groups in a long-range plan to re-start commercial whaling. At the International Whaling Commission meeting in Dublin in May 1995, Dan Greene, the delegate from the Makah nation, met with representatives of the Norwegian, Icelandic, and Japanese whaling associations, who are whaling over the objections of the IWC and in violation of IWC regulations. The three whaling nations have pledged to support the Makah. Sea Shepherd's opposition to the Makah hunt is not about blocking native rights; it is about stopping a disastrous precedent before it is set, one that would effectively destroy the position of the United States as a defender of the whales and the primary champion of the global ban on their hunting. If the Makah are allowed to get away with a non-subsistence whale hunt, many other groups are going to claim the right to do the same, and the international black market trade in whale meat will explode. The Makah Tribal Council is responsible for the creation of Makah Forestry Enterprise, an organization whose founding board included two Weyerhauser executives, and which has overseen the ruinous clear-cutting of millions of board feet of old-growth forest on tribal land. The Makah Tribal Council is a group of venture capitalists looking for resources to exploit. ("We continue to strongly believe that we have a right under the Treaty of Neah Bay to harvest whales not only for ceremonial and subsistencepurposes but also for commercial purposes." -- Hubert Markishtum, Chairman, Makah Tribal Council, May 5, 1995). They have wrapped the whale hunt in a cloak of rhetoric about spiritual journeys, culture, tradition, and their need to bond with whales by killing them. It is as calculated as apolitician's stump speech promising a bright vision for the future, hope, and change in the name of motherhood, kids, and apple pie. As a matter of international law, the Makah must show a subsistence need for whale meat, as required by the International Whaling Commission, before they may hunt or kill a whale. They have not done so. As a matter of U.S. law, before authorizing this hunt, the National Marine Fisheries Service was required to consider and evaluate the potential impacts of this action, including the controversial nature of the proposal, its potential establishment of precedent for future actions with significanteffects, cumulatively significant impacts resulting from the action, and the fact that the action will occur in or near a National Marine Sanctuary. They failed to do so. Sea Shepherd and the Whale Guardians Network will oppose the hunt on the water.... We will also hold a rally in Seattle in September. Contact us for information on donations of funds, material, skills, and time. Help us enforce the law. Help us stop this hunt. Help us save the whales. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society E-mail: seashepherd@seashepherd.org Tel: 310-301-SEAL(7325)
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