NEAH BAY — Makah whalers witnessed the killing of three gray whales during a hunt this month off the far eastern Russian region of Chukotka.
Two tribal members and Nathan Pamplin, tribal marine mammal biologist, joined the expedition in the North Pacific Ocean as observers.
“We were observing their hunt,” Ben Johnson Jr., Makah tribal chairman, said Thursday, “seeing how they did their whaling.”
Chukotka lies due west across the Bering Sea from Nome, Alaska.
The Makah, who stirred international controversy when they killed a gray whale in 1999, are seeking to resume whaling off the coast of Washington.
Public “scoping meetings” are scheduled in October as the National Marine Fisheries Service considers an environmental impact statement on the tribe’s proposal.
