Regardless of the readers' thought cycle, it is an issue that must affect all of us in the Pacific Northwest. It represents a reality that will become painfully mature in the coming weeks as we approach the end of October. Please take heart and read on...
Scenario: October 1st, 1998
In another part of the cognitive world, it approaches Mabon, the final harvest. But here, a cold haze shrouds the sea stacks off the frost-mantled shores of Cape Flattery, another black harvest is in the making. In the mist, Gray whales filter past; migrating tirelessly southward after a summer's feasting in the high Beaufort Sea. For thousands of years, they have passed these same shores, sometimes in silence, sometimes encountering the bronze-skinned men who sought out their slower brethren with stone and cedar harpoons.
Watching them pass Cape Flattery, a contingency of bronzed men would launch from shore, navigating their boats through the surf and swinging seaward, bows poised to intercept the whales, sometimes a young male, sometimes a young female traveling with her calf. In past months of harvest, many times these boats were overturned. And many times, men died in the cold waters of the open Pacific.
But sometimes, the whales died, their fleshed striped clean, their bones left to bleach white on the rocks, their bodies and oils traded to other nomadic tribes for goods that the Makah people did not have. It was a form of commerce, and in repentance, the humans who killed these whales sang songs; they prayed to the great whale spirits for forgiveness, and they practiced discipline, restraint, sacrifice and cleansing. This was their way; it appeared to make their hunt pure and worthy of its eventual end -- the killing of a creature as intelligent as the hunters themselves.
Yet, there was always one crystal fact denied -- the whales never voluntarily offered themselves up to die.
This month, the songs of the Makah hunters are about to echo again across the Cape Flattery wilderness. But this time, the cries that emanate from shore will not be ancient, timeless chants. Neither will the figure poised in the bow of these contemporary whaling vessels be a purified spirit brandishing a ceremonial cedar harpoon. The new whaling vessels, maneuverable Zodiac inflatables and aluminum skiffs, will be powered by Mercury engines, and the hunters will be wearing Seattle Mariners baseball caps and camouflage jackets. The chosen harpooner will hold, as well, a Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft rifle, while three other similarly dressed hunters will follow his lead in the other boats.
And the most notable difference is the lack of a pure heart among many of the hunters. Some have declared a desire to conduct a killing for speculative purpose, some have stated that they will do it only on principle. Regardless of the motivation, autumn, 72 years after a truce was declared on the tribes of the sea, Gray whales passing Cape Flattery will again be killed.
And it will not be a noble deed. The Gray whale will not even have a chance to finish expelling her last breath as a .50 caliber bullet will shatter her cranium, lodging itself deep into her skull. And when a volley of rounds splatters the boat and its occupants with bloodied spray and tissue, the whale starts to die slowly. They always die slowly -- whether at the hands of Japanese or Norwegian commercial whalers, or the Alaskan Eskimo who use high-powered rifles and explosive grenade-tipped harpoons. They will thrash and lunge wildly, and the Makah hunters -- men who have never before seen a whale die or heard its plaintive screams -- will be uncertain of what to do.
Is this image vivid? It should be. The blood of these whales will be spilled into the waters of the United States, a scant 3 1/2 hour drive from the cosmopolitan lights of Seattle. We will all have to face it as a reality in the coming weeks as we ourselves prepare again for Mabon.
The Distant Past
This hunt might have been foreshadowed over 2,000 years ago, long prior to Spanish, English and Russian exploration of the Pacific northwest. The Makah people traditionally hunted whales and harvested fish off the coast of Neah Bay at the Northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula, 3 hours west of Seattle, Washington.
Throughout time, as European civilization spread across the continent, the Makah tribe, like so many other indigenous bands assimilated by new world conquest, negotiated treaties to protect their dwindling society. On January 31, 1855, the infamous Stevens Treaty was administered by Isaac I. Stevens, govrnor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the United States. Signing were the chiefs, head-men, and delegates of several villages of the Makah, Neah Waatch, Tsoo-Yess, and Osett tribes of Indians who occupied the country around Cape Classett or Flattery.
The main element of relevance in treaty was the following article:
The article stated that the US acknowledged that the Makah would be allowed to retain the right to kill whales. Written over 140 years ago, this treaty was indelibly printed in the memories of the Makah people, long after the killing of whales ceased to be a part of their ceremonial and ritual activities."Article 4. The right of taking fish and of whaling or sealing at usual and accustomed grounds and stations is further secured to said Indians in common with all citizens of the United States..."
But while the tenets of settlement and survival caused the Makah to terminate all their traditional whaling activities in 1926, the power vested in the infamous Stevens Treaty has been lying dormant over the past 70 years like a slumbering dragon. Then in 1995, the dragon awoke with a vengeance.
The Recent Past
In June of 1994, the Pacific Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, led by a Makah Fisheries official successfully argued to the US government that the Eastern Pacific Gray whale no longer needed protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Then in May 1995, a delegation from within the Makah Tribal Council announced their intention to recommence their traditional Gray whale hunt, notifying the National Marine Fisheries Service and the International Whaling Commission that they intended to kill 5 Gray whales each year commencing in 1996.
Not surprisingly, a Gray whale died that summer at the hands of a Tribal Fisheries Director, who formally delivered the Makah announcement at the IWC meeting. It appeared that a young Gray whale curiously became entangled in his net in late July. The young Gray soon drowned, and the tribe, primarily as a courtesy, told NMFS that they intended to butcher and distribute the whale among tribal members.
After saying a few prayers and holding a few ceremonial rituals, the whale was ready for butchering. None of the Makah people knew how to quarter a whale, and an Inuit woman from an Alaskan band was found who would offer the Makah the instructions needed.
Nevertheless, the butchering was performed, and the whale meat w a s distributed among the tribes' m e m b e r s h i p . Elders within the tribe tell a different e n d i n g though; it is reported that 80% of the whale's flesh was discarded by the contemporary tribal members-- some fearing the contamination of mercury and other accumulated toxins, some simply not interested in following through in the ways of their ancestors.
But the timing of the accidental event was a beautifully contrived opportunity to gauge public response to the plans of the Makah, and oddly, it did not become as big an issue as most advocacy groups hoped it would. Makah tribal elder Alberta Thompson-- one of seven originally dissenting elders and the sole remaining visionary elder who understands that all culture (including the M a k a h ) m u s t eventually e v o l v e -- testifies that, after the whale was butchered and the meat was distributed, many of the people simply threw the whale meat away, recoiling from the fetid smell and coarse texture of the meat. It was not a surprise; Gray whales feed on bottom dwelling amphipods, which in turn scrounge the seafloor looking for marine sediments and benthic waste.
In fact, Russian whalers on the Chukchi Peninsula who harvest about 179 Grays each year will not touch Gray whale meat themselves, saying that it "causes severe diarrhea." Apparently, Siberian Eskimo have a word to describe Gray whale meat, which loosely translated, means "whose flesh makes you shit." The meat is ultimately used as feed for blue fox farms in Siberia, raised to provide skins for commercial sale.
South of the Alaskan Peninsula, it was not just the Makah that had hunted whales off the Olympic coast. The Hoh, Quileute and Quinault all traditionally killed Gray, Humpback and even Orca whales. And northward, on Vancouver Island, the Ahousaht, Ditidaht, Ehattesaht, Hesquiahtand and 10 other Nuu-Chah-Nulth bands of ancestral Nootka lineage hunted these whales. The combined population of these additional tribes is about 7,700-- almost 5 times as many people as the Makah tribe. The Fisheries Manager for the MTC said in 1995 that he knows of additional tribes in Southeast Alaska that who will also watch the political and societal response to the Makah plans.
But in the autumn of 1997, political compromise laid the way clear for the Makah whalers to pursue and kill their first five whales in 1998. This October or November, the hunt is scheduled to begin.
And with recent media reports, it appears that there are a number of North Pacific tribes lining up to hunt the Gray whale. So the killing of 5 Gray whales this year will very likely fuel a firestorm of exploding harpoons and rifles, aimed at whales traveling all along the entire Pacific North American coast. With the present threats to its Baja California breeding grounds, the potential that Gray whales would now be targeted throughout their migration route from the Pacific coastline all the way to the Chukchi Peninsula, this could be grim news for the Pacific Gray whale which so recently was removed from the Endangered Species List. (Ed-And is still on the Threatened Species List.)
The Greater Implications
There is a greater reason to be alarmed. During the early 1900's, we, as a species, exterminated over 80% of the great whales in the world's seas. We effectively silenced the music of the oceans for many selfish and ephemeral reasons. Even today, the great whales have not recovered, and the dire prediction is that many of their seagoing tribes will disappear completely before the first decade of the next millennium is reached.
Perhaps the most significant reason that the forthcoming gray whale hunt must be prevented is due to the precedent that this first "culturally justified" hunt will set. Japan, Norway, Iceland, Russia and Greenland, as well as many Caribbean nations, have all stated in public that, when this precedent setting "cultural" whale hunt begins, every nation on earth that has a cultural basis in whaling must be given that license.
In effect, what happens off our shores this autumn will color the fabric of the world's oceans, and all the great whale tribes that live beneath her waves.
A Timeless, yet Timely Dilemma
There is no doubt that all cultures change; they adapt and transform within the context of our global journey into the future. Some cultural events can remain sacrosanct; and some others-- particularly those which were based in some form of persecution and/or exploitation-- must be changed to reflect the New World and enlightenment that is learned in the course of our collective journey away from the old ways.
This is markedly true in our relationship to other species. And so must it be with the human-borne killing of whales. For many centuries, humankind has understood that whales, dolphins and porpoises, perhaps disproportionately to other wildlife species, held a sentience not unlike our own species. Some would even argue that these creatures have progressed beyond our level of consciousness, having evolved to biologically re-seek a home in the very sea which life on this earth is reported to have been born of.
Is it morally feasible to sacrifice something which, unto itself, has its own sentient purpose for living benignly alongside the most arrogant of all life forms?
Moreover, in past centuries, gray whales were killed by the Makah whalers for commercial subsistence. It is possible that, at this distant point in history, the need to kill a creature as sentient as the great whales that passed our shores held a different, more tactile reason for the hunters. A whale's blood, in these distant times, was shed in order to prove one's worth and stature-- the hunter suffered in preparation as a form of pro-active penance for the blood he was to spill and the life he was to end.
And the perceived `communion' that was built between the hunters and the whales simply worked to help prepare the hunter emotionally for the deed he was about to undertake. Killing has always had moral and ethical implications, and it was always more accommodating to report that `the whale delivered itself to the hunter' and gave its life for the good of the whale hunters of the "Kwih-dich-chuh- ahtx" or "the people who live by the rocks and seagulls".
But I must report that no whale killed ever `delivered' itself to the hands of the hunter. And I will also say that the elders and the storytellers, who have for many decades chronicled the hunting ways of the Makah and other whaling people, all explain that the whales, when they were pursued, fought feverishly for their lives. I have witnessed it from Siberia, and literature is filled with accounts by Waterman, Swan and other anthropologists that many whale hunters where killed, canoes where overturned and many a whale swam for days to escape death before succumbing to the lance of the Makah whaler.
This brings us full circle to the modern day adaptation of the ancient hunt -- an adaptation in which the hunters will be equipped with modern weapons, survival gear, electronic safety equipment and government sponsored security forces.
It is not surprising then, that no Makah whaler is today willing to prepare in the same fashion that they once did. The elders on the reservation themselves have testified to this.
The Final Chapter
Understanding the link between whales (and other sentient animal species) and humankind is a fundamental part of understanding our collective connectedness with Gaia and the whole Earth. Simultaneously, the understanding of life and its interconnectivity and intrinsic value will give insight to the knowledge that the well-being of the human race is determined by the well-being of the planet and all its inhabitants.
Magic, both positive and negative, has already been in play. As a consequence of my prevailing role against the Makah hunt since 1994, I have myself been assailed by unexplained events in efforts to oppose this slaughter. To date, I have encountered inexplicable events of extreme bad luck, and abrupt physical onslaughts during the monthly field surveillance activities conducting solo Sea Shepherd patrols of Neah Bay. Having found my own circle of advocates, these attacks have largely been nullified, but there is still a feeling of anger and hostility that permeates the energies of anti-whaling advocates.
Many, many years ago, the whale tribes of the sea learned that lesson. They have learned to live peacefully alongside humankind, even the most proficient hunters like the orca and pilot whales, without ever harming a single human. But in our sordid history, we have not been as enlightened and benevolent as they are.
This autumn, many actions will be taken to address the Makah gray whale hunt. I have been told that a few circles of telepaths have been formed to send the grays a warning -- to encourage them to swim further from shore. Other efforts include seeking communion with the dissenting elders of the tribe -- a bold task due to the level of social ostracism and persecution these brave women are undergoing on the reservation. Some will direct their energies to those who will be the Whale Guardians, others will conduct their own rituals to grant speed to the gray whales or draw energy from those who would harm them.
The whaling canoes are scheduled to depart from Makah whaling camps during the first week of October. Our group will have a physical presence around Neah Bay for the entire whaling season, utilizing two large ships and a submarine to protect these gentle leviathans as they pass. Nevertheless, much, much more help is needed. Particularly the kind of help that only the readers of Widdershins and other enlightened journals can undertake.
For those individuals interested in taking more traditional steps to prevent the death of whales this autumn, there are other needs that can be met. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be on location for the entire whale-killing season, and our vessels need crew and support for the duration of the hunt. Volunteers, who can offer mechanical and electrical or marine/sea skills are always welcome. Also needed are shipboard crewmembers and deckhands who are willing and available to spend time doing general maintenance, security and surveillance aboard either of our two vessels on location at Neah Bay.
Skilled fundraisers and people who can help raise the money to keep us in the field are also sought -- anyone who can call prospective volunteers, set up a fundraising function or anti-whaling rally in Seattle or other outlying cities will be a valuable resource in this effort. Most importantly, people are encouraged to contact your local Member of Congress or State Representative and ask them to cease any and all funding and federal or state support to this appalling and unnecessary slaughter.
I will invite anyone who shares a special enlightenment with our whale brethren, or who can offer a deeper, more collaborative insight into native spirituality, to join me and other whale advocates in the effort to protect them. Please take this invitation seriously; the fabric of our Pacific coastline is about to be changed forever.
For the Seas...
Michael Kundu [SeaWolf]
Pacific Northwest Coordinator
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
projectseawolf@seanet.com
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