> i notice an interest in the list members in the GREEN PARTY. For your
> information here is Green Party Vice Presidentioal Candidate Winona LaDuke's
> statement on the Makah Nation's right to kill whales. The global village now
> challanges old world rights. In the 60's we honored nation states and native
> tribes points of view. Today we are challenged to make global decissions.
> The International Whaling Commission bans the killing of these whales by
> anyone on the planet. cheers, country joe mcdonald
>
> GREEN PARTY STATEMENT
> -------------------------------
>
> Winona LaDuke Green Party Vice Presidential
> Candidate Position on Makah Whaling: August 2000
>
> The Makah Nation, situated at Neah Bay, in what is now known as
> Washington State, has thousands of years of tradition as ocean
> harvesters, including fish, seals, and whales. When US Territorial
> Governor Isaac Stevens arrived at Neah Bay in December of l855, he
> entered into treaty negotiations for three days with Makah leaders. The
> Makah made it clear to him that while they were prepared to cede their
> lands to the US, they wanted a guarantee of their traditional rights on
> the ocean, and specifically the right to take whales. The treaty of the
> l855, ratified by the US Congress is the law of the land under the
> constitution and has been upheld in the federal courts and the US
> Supreme court. That treaty to the Makah is as "powerful and meaningful
> a document as the US constitution is to other Americans, it is what our
> forefathers bequeathed to us". As a candidate for Vice President of the
> United States, I believe that the US should abide by international law,
> and honor treaties. The treaty with the Makah is the only treaty
> between a Native Nation and the US government, which explicitly
> guarantees a right to whale.
>
> Indigenous peoples on a worldwide scale, are increasingly impacted by
> wanton industrialization, and it's impacts on ecosystems, animal
> populations, culture, and the ability of peoples to sustain themselves
> with dignity. The United Nations has increasingly become concerned
> about the losses of cultural diversity, and human lives in the world,
> and designated, for instance decades of Indigenous peoples, and working
> groups on the issues of Indigenous peoples. Prior to this, however, the
> International Whaling Commission, after appeals by member nations as
> well as Indigenous Nations has specifically allocated whale harvest
> quotas to Indigenous peoples for the past decades, recognizing the
> nutritional and specific spiritual needs of these communities to
> continue their harvests. The International Whaling Commission, at it's
> last meeting continued this practice, approving a combined 620 gray
> whale quota for Russian and US aboriginals to be taken over a five year
> period. The Makah quota is 20 whales landed over five years
> (l998-2002), with no more than 33 strikes. This Makah quota did not
> increase the IWC allocation, but, instead, was removed, according to
> both the Makah Whaling Commission and the Northwest Indian Fisheries
> Commission from the Chukotki, indigenous people from Russia, whose
> annual take is l65 whales. In short, the Makah allocation, in no way
> increased the subsistence allocations internationally for the harvest of
> gray whales.
>
> The Makah had taken a 70 year fast from what is one of their most
> important spiritual and subsistence foods, since the industrialized
> whale harvest had devastated whale populations in the eastern Pacific
> herd. The decline in subsistence harvest of whale, like other
> traditional foods, also decimated by industrial fishing and harvesting
> has had detrimental impacts on Native communities like the Makah. Many
> of these communities today have diabetes rates averaging 40% in adults,
> and related nutritional problems associated with the forced rapid
> transformation of indigenous diets from traditional foods to processed
> foods, often called commodities and high in starch and sugars. The
> impacts of these devastating health effects cannot be overstated in
> Native communities, whose public health services have been entirely
> underfunded (in comparison to vast expenditures on the military and
> other non- human needs allocations in the federal budget). Native
> health statistics and funding nationally fall far below, even the most
> dire conditions in the general population. Whale meat, like other ocean
> mammal meat has oils and nutritional sources which are absorbed into the
> system directly, and are considered essential to the recovery of the
> health of the Makah people, and other traditional Native peoples who are
> ocean harvesters.
>
> The Makah assumed that when the International Whaling Commission,
> combined with the US government, estimated that the health of the
> Eastern Pacific gray whale herd was well established, with at least
> 22,000 members, that the animal was considered "recovered" and delisted
> from the Endangered Species Act in l994. It was safe therefore to resume
> their traditional harvest. That harvest, while guaranteed in the treaty,
> is considered a sacred right and responsibility of the Makah people. The
> US government supported the Makah Nation's request for aboriginal
> subsistence whaling, and sought an IWC approved quota.
>
> The Makah whale hunt's resurrection was supported by a referendum vote
> in the Makah people, in which 85% of those voting favored whaling.
> Provisions for the whaling included both the use of traditional harpoons
> (adapted with the best technologies), and the use of a .50 caliber
> rifle, which is, considered the most humane and expedient method of
> killing the animal. The Makah consulted with Dr. Allen Ingling, a
> veterinarian at the University of Maryland, along with the National
> Marine Mammal Laboratory, in the determination of the most humane way of
> harvesting a whale, and utilized this practice simultaneous to their
> traditional harvesting practice. The community also undertook the hunt
> with the understanding inside the village, and with NOAA (National
> Marine Fisheries Service), that there would be no commercial sale of
> whale meat. The tribe further committed this in a written agreement with
> NOAA, reinforced by 50CFR part 2300 which states "No person may sell, or
> offer for sale, whale products from whales taken in an aboriginal
> subsistence hunt, except that authentic articles of native handcraft may
> be sold or offered for sale."
>
> The Makah whale harvest was successful, in taking of one whale in l999.
> That was in spite of organized and aggressive interference by the Sea
> Shepard Society, in coordination with some additional interests. The
> actions of the Sea Shepard Society additionally cost the United States
> Coast Guard up to perhaps $5 million in expenditures to protect the
> Makah exercise of their legal rights. The whale taken is presumed to be
> from the Eastern Pacific whale herd, the harvest taking place in May of
> l999, just after the formal allocation of the permit from NOAA, to the
> Makah Whaling Commission, and the subsequent allocation of the whaling
> permit by the Makah Whaling Commission.
>
> Based on the above information, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the
> Green Party supports and will enforce the law of the United States in
> honoring it's treaties, and in the protection of the Makah right to
> continue their harvest of gray whales. At the same time as the Makah
> exercised their treaty right, I have great concerns as to the continued
> industrialized whaling practices by Norway and Japan, and the sudden
> increase in massive whale mortality. I would propose measures to seek
> mitigation of both these problems.
>
> The International Whaling Commission introduced a moratorium on
> commercial whaling in l986. However, Japan and Norway exploited
> "loopholes" in the moratorium in order to continue their whaling
> practices. Norway hunts whales commercially off its own coasts, and
> Japan is pressing the IWC to allow it to do the same. In l998, Norway
> hunted down some 624 whales. Using a pretext of "scientific whaling"
> Japan killed 389 whales in the Southern Ocean, within the borders of the
> Southern Whale Sanctuary in l999. The wholesale value of the l700 tons
> of whale meat caught by the Japanese in the Antarctic was about 3
> billion yen, the retail value about three times that.
>
> I support a moratorium on commercial whaling. I also support the
> expansion of whale sanctuaries including the development, initially of a
> South Pacific Whale Sanctuary, as supported by Australia and New
> Zealand, and a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary as proposed by Brazil at
> the International Whaling Commission. I also support a Global Whale
> Sanctuary and the abolition of commercial whaling.
>
> In terms of possible whale destruction by the US Navy, I would call for
> a cessation of the SURTASS LFAS Program (Surveillance Towed Array Sonar
> System utilizing Low Frequency Active Sonar). This program, is a
> continuation of the militarization of the ocean, and represents, not
> only an excessive cost to taxpayers, in a post-cold war era, in which
> the US military budgetary expenditures dwarf those of any other
> "potential enemies" by at least ten fold; but represents a clear threat
> to whale, dolphin and other ocean species.
>
> The proposed military acoustic program would be a network of very high
> powered sound generators placed in various places round the oceans, some
> stationary, others towed behind ships. The sound generators can blast
> 250 decibels of noise, which is l00, 000 to one million times greater
> than the loudest whale, and perhaps a billion times louder than the
> subtle acoustical signals of other sea creatures. The system is designed
> for the sophisticated location and long distance communication between
> submarines. These sounds are the loudest sounds ever generated by
> humans, with the possible exception of the noise at nuclear Ground
> Zero. After almost every known Navy test, whales and dolphins show up
> on beaches for "mysterious reasons", some with bleeding eyes, damaged
> and infected cochlea, and other unusual tissue damage and these are the
> creatures we know about. The Navy has thus far maintained that the
> strandings are only " anecdotal", unconnected to it's testing, and
> refuses to study the matter further. Based on extensive strandings in
> the Canary Islands (l985, l988, l989), the Atlantic Coast (l987),
> Northern California (l995, l997) British Columbia, Hawaii, US Virgin
> Islands, and the Bahamas. I advocate for a complete cessation of this
> program, and a study of the anecdotal data. I would advocate for this
> based on a precautionary principle, in that we are not sure of the
> long-term impact, but are quite aware of the present anecdotal evidence.
>
> Furthermore, in relationship to an increase in whale beachings, and
> autopsies, the reports show both increases in health problems among the
> whales, "starvation", and other mortalities, leading to the death of
> perhaps an estimated 300 whales in the past year alone. These
> mortalities are, according to federal studies, related largely to
> ecosystem decline, contamination and overharvesting of other species.
> The continued overharvesting of fish species by mass industrialized
> fishing poses a greater threat to our ecosystems, and our economies by
> far, than the actions of the Makah. The allocation of ITQs is based on
> false ecological premises of Maximum sustainable harvests, and has been
> part of the process, through which the UN today estimates that nearly
> every commercial species surveyed is fully exploited, over exploited or
> depleted. The total of all catches have gone from 3 million tons in
> l900 to 86 million tones in l989, largely driven by the introduction of
> factory trawlers. By l99l, 50 vessels of the fleet, comprised only 2.5
> percent of all boats in the groundfish fisheries off Alaska that year,
> yet landed l.4 million metric tones of catch, nearly three quarters of
> the total. Additionally, almost 70% of that which is caught is tossed
> back dead into the ocean as "bycatch", considered waste, but, is a total
> waste of life to all those fish. As well, one third of all fish caught
> by the factory trawlers is reduced to fish meal, to produce for hogs,
> and chickens, and represents a total loss of protein potential for the
> world's peoples, many of whom live on the brink of starvation.
>
> The overharvesting and devastation of our oceans indicated by
> industrialized fishing destroys all of this life, offsets potential
> income for family fishers, and is a whole part of the mismanagement of
> the world's oceans. For the first time ever, the total ocean fish catch
> has begun to decline. I support conservation measures, including no
> fishing zones, to restore fish stocks in the world, some of which are
> nearing spirals toward extinction. All of these measures represent the
> necessary steps for the future of our communities, our relatives, and
> our planet.
> *****
-- "Ira Furor Brevis Est " - Anger is a brief madness
country joe Home Pg <http://www.countryjoe.com>
country joe's tribute to Florence Nightingale
<http://www.countryjoe.com/nightingale>
Berkeley Vietnam Veterans Memorial
<http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Links/Comm/vvm>
Rag Baby Online Magazine <http://www.ragbaby.com/magazine>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Aug 30 2000 - 21:17:50 CUT