NOAA Fisheries is seeking public submissions on the Makah Tribe’s permit application for a limited hunt for eastern North Pacific gray whales for ceremonial and subsistence purposes.
The Makah Tribe submitted the permit application under hunt regulations that NOAA Fisheries issued last year when approving the Tribe’s request for a limited waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow the hunt. The Makah Tribe originally gave up tribal hunting many decades ago because commercial whaling had decimated the species.
Gray whales have since rebounded and were removed from protection of the Endangered Species Act in 1994. In 1995, the Makah Tribe notified the U.S. government of interest in resuming its traditional hunting practices as provided in the tribe’s treaty with the government.
“This is the next step in the process,” said Chris Yates, Assistant Regional Administrator for Protected Resources in NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region. “We are now getting down to the details of just where, when, and how the hunt might take place under this initial hunt permit. To be authorized, the hunt must be carefully planned, and safe for people and humane for the gray whales that have long had this relationship with the Makah Tribe.”
Eastern North Pacific gray whales that migrate along the West Coast now number about 19,000. They continue recovering from several years of elevated strandings that NOAA Fisheries named an Unusual Mortality Event in 2019. Repeated analyses and assessments by NOAA Fisheries, an administrative law judge, and others have found that the small number of animals affected by the hunt would have no detectable effect on the health or productivity of the larger gray whale population.
The Makah Tribe proposes to hunt as many as two gray whales during the summer months starting in July 2025. The Tribe in its application agreed to follow the hunt regulations, which outline safety measures and other directions for how the hunt can be conducted. NOAA Fisheries and the Makah Tribe will also coordinate with the U.S. Coast Guard, which would maintain a moving exclusionary zone around the tribe’s hunting vessel to ensure their safety.
NOAA Fisheries will take public comments on the hunt permit application for 47 days. After considering the comments, we will decide whether to issue the Tribe a permit based on the criteria outlined in the hunt regulations, and whether to attach conditions.
Comments can be submitted through regulations.gov or by mail as described in the federal register notice, or via email to MakahPermit.WCR@noaa.gov, until May 5th, 2025 at 11:59 PM EDT.
