Adding Injury to Insult
Two environmental protestors have been injured this week while trying to interfere with the gray whale hunt that the Makah native tribe in Washington state started up a few days ago. Under a 1997 deal, the U.S. is allowing the Makahs to kill up to five gray whales a year. In a highly publicized and controversial hunt last year, the tribe killed one. Erin Abbott of Ocean Defense International yesterday buzzed the Makahs’ canoe while on a personal watercraft and was subsequently rammed by a U.S. Coast Guard boat that was trying to keep protestors out of a protected hunting zone; she suffered a broken shoulder and ribs. Another protestor received minor injuries on Monday when a Coast Guard vessel came right up next to the boat in which she was riding. Opponents of the hunt vow to continue their protests.