April 8, 2019 — The Makah Tribe of Washington state took a step closer on Friday to resuming the hunting of gray whales with a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposal to allow the practice nearly two decades after a federal appeals court halted it.
The proposal by NOAA Fisheries would allow a waiver to the Marine Mammal Protection Act to let the tribe harvest 20 Eastern North Pacific gray whales over a 10-year period. The tribe had originally requested to harvest 20 whales every five years.