THURSDAY
MARCH 12, 2015 Opinion ��������������Page 4 Community News ���Page 5
Archibald photos and book signing at ONRC
Ferguson photography on display at PC
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Page 10
Sports ���������������Page 7 Classifieds ���������� Page 17 SERVING THE WEST END SINCE 1931
Volume 83 No. 28
• WWW.FORKSFORUM.COM •
Public comment sought in return of Makah whaling The public has until June 11 to comment on a draft environmental impact statement on the Makah Nation’s long-pending request to resume hunting gray whales off the North Olympic Peninsula. The National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the 1,229-page draft study Friday, March 6. The draft study proposes six different options ranging from not allowing any hunting at all to allowing up to 24 North Pacific gray whales to be harvested in coastal waters within a sixyear period. They are:
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• Alternative 3 also would prohibit Makah hunters from making an “initial strike” within 5 miles of shore and would set a probable “mortality limit” of 2.7 whales a year. • Alternative 4 would limit the hunt to June 1-Nov. 10 to avoid killing endangered Western Pacific gray whales — a population distinct from resident whales — and limit mortality to one member of the Pacific Coast Feeding Group that ranges from Northern California to northern Vancouver Island. • Alternative 5 would open two 21-day-long hunting seasons —
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Dec. 1-21 and May 10-31 — to avoid killing a Western Pacific gray whale or a feeding-group whale, thus limiting the hunt to a local population of whales. It also would set a probable limit of 0.27 whales a year, including any whale struck but not landed. • Alternative 6 would limit strikes to seven a year and set a probable mortality limit of 2.25. The Marine Mammal Protection Act moratorium waiver would expire after 10 years and a permit to hunt would last no more than three years. The draft’s source — the fisheries service of NOAA, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce — will accept written comments on the draft
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for three months. By late April the fisheries service may hold public meetings in Neah Bay, Port Angeles and Seattle on the alternatives. Similar meetings on an earlier draft environmental impact statement included sessions in Silver Spring, Md., near Washington, D.C., to accommodate national animal-advocacy groups. Written comments can be submitted by e-mail to Makah2015DEIS.wcr@noaa. gov. The draft also is available at public libraries in Clallam Bay and Forks. Copies on CD are available by contacting Steve Stone at 503-231-2317 or steve.stone@ NOAA.gov.
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PRSRT STD US Postage Paid Permit No. 6 Forks, WA
• Alternative 2 would let the Makah harvest as many as five Eastern North Pacific gray whales a year and a maximum of 24 over six years in tribal ocean fishing grounds except for a zone around Tatoosh Island and White Rock. No more than seven whales could be “struck” — penetrated by harpoons or bullets — in a year and no more than three struck and lost. The National Marine Fisheries Service, furthermore, could limit the harvest to
three whales a year if the whale population was shrinking.
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• A no-action alternative would not authorize a whale hunt but would continue a 2004 moratorium under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in a decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Last week carpenters were busy working on the “acoustical clouds” in the RAC. City of Forks attorney/planner Rod Fleck reports that everything is on schedule for the grand opening. In just a few weeks, Rainfest 2015 will be under way and that first weekend, April 18-19, will include the grand opening and dedication ceremony for the Rainforest Arts Center. Photo by Christi Baron