c The Associated Press
NEAH BAY, Wash. (May 17) - For the first time in more than 70 years, Makah Indians seeking to re-establish their whale-hunting tradition harpooned a gray whale off the Pacific coast this morning.
The whaling crew in a traditional, hand-carved cedar canoe struck the whale at 6:55 a.m. under gray and misty skies.
Support crews in motorized boats moved in with guns and fired at least two shots to try to make the kill as the wounded whale towed the canoe through choppy seas about one-eighth of a mile offshore near Point of the Arches.
The water turned red as the whalers then stuck the giant mammal with two more harpoons.
After the later strikes, the canoe was no longer being dragged, but the whale was not visible on the surface. The whale's condition was not immediately clear from television pictures shot from helicopters, but large amounts of blood could be seen.
Today's hunt climaxed months of training by the canoe's crew and tense confrontations with antiwhaling protesters. For centuries, the tribe at the tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula had hunted the huge grays that migrate along the Pacific Coast between Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
''We're obviously very upset that the Makah went ahead with killing an innocent, sentient creature in such a bloody and untraditional way,'' said Jake Conroy of Sea Defense Alliance. ''We find if very hurtful and despicable that they did destroy that whale's life.''
The crew rested Sunday, a day after spending 10 1/2 hours paddling around the Pacific. They threw a harpoon twice Saturday, but the whales escaped apparently unharmed.
The Coast Guard seized three boats from whaling protesters Saturday. Protesters had vowed to maintain their presence, but no protesters interfered during this morning's hunt.
''I think the tradeoff - boats for a whale - is pretty fair,'' Paul Watson, skipper of the Sirenian and head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, had said earlier. ''I'm pretty sure they would have taken a whale if it wasn't for those small boats.''
Watson wouldn't discuss how many boats are left, how many new boats would join the fleet or when they would arrive. He expects the Coast Guard to return the seized vessels after the hunt is over.
When grays were taken off the Endangered Species List in 1994, the tribe moved to resume whale hunts guaranteed under their 1855 treaty. The usually placid marine mammal can grow up to 45 feet long.
The tribe had stopped hunting in the 1920s, after gray-whale populations were decimated by commercial whaling. Tribal leaders decided to resume as a way to preserve their culture on their remote reservation here, at the northwest tip of the Lower 48 states.
The U.S. government supported their bid before the International Whaling Commission. Under the plan, the tribe is not allowed to sell edible whale parts and can kill only five whales per year through 2004.
AP-NY-05-17-99 1142EDT
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