Approximately 27,000 eastern North Pacific grey whales migrate between Mexico’s Baja California peninsula the Bering, Beaufort and Chukchi Seas annually. However, about 250 animals skip the full migration and spend from spring until fall feeding along the coast from northern California to southeast Alaska. Unfortunately, a cross-border controversy is brewing that could put some of the whales that break off from the main migration, identified as the Pacific Coast Feeding Group, directly in the waters where the Makah Tribe, based in Neah Bay, have applied to hunt up to 25 whales over 10 years. The proposal for the renewed hunt is being supported by the US National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has asked an administrative law judge for a waiver to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. While the US is taking this into consideration, in Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada recommended to the environment minister in October 2018 that the Pacific group should be designated as endangered under the Species at Risk Act. Fisheries and Oceans Canada will ask for feedback on listing the whales later this year. If the recommendation to classify them as endangered is accepted, the population and their critical habitats will receive additional protection, and a recovery strategy will be put into action. That would mean that if the Makah hunt is approved in the US, the whales that are protected in Canada could be hunted just across the border.
