[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 69 (Thursday, May 13, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                OPPOSE RENEWAL OF WHALING BY MAKAH TRIBE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Metcalf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on an issue that millions 
of our people in our Nation seriously care about. Since the close of 
the worldwide whaling era at the end of the last century, it has been 
U.S. policy to oppose killing whales.
  But today we have a real problem. The Clinton-Gore administration is 
quietly changing this policy by authorizing the hunting and killing of 
whales by the Makah Indian tribe in northwest Washington State.
  The victims of course are the gray whales, the major focus of whale 
watching on the northwest coast of Washington State and the United 
States. These whales are local to the northwest coast, and they do not 
fear boats. They are used to the boats. They see boats all the time, 
and they have no fear.
  Whales do have a commercial value and there are interests just 
waiting to cash in, even as they did in the glory days of worldwide 
commercial whaling. If we allow whaling to begin in America again, what 
can we say to Japan and Norway whose whaling we have opposed for years? 
We tried to get them to stop. Now we are going to allow commercial 
whaling again.
  The real problem is, once we open the door to new worldwide 
commercial whaling, how do we ever close it again? Most Americans 
believe that we have risen above the wanton slaughter of the buffalo 
for their hides or the whales for the value of their body parts.

                              {time}  1615

  I urge my colleagues to join me in opposition to the renewal of 
whaling by the Makah Tribe of Northwest Washington State.

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