ANCHORAGE, Alaska (2 July 2002) -- A small wounded gray whale has miraculously survived after turning over a high-speed, light-alloy boat and dumping Inuit hunters into the icy waters of the Bering Strait. One of the Inuits, Melton Ozenna, 41, suffered a fatal head injury when the boat flipped over. "It happened so fast, I don't remember blinking," said Orville Ahkinga Jr. who was in another boat. "The whole ordeal took 30 seconds, maybe less." "Diomede residents have long hunted the gray whale, but they don't like to," Ahkinga added. The animals are smaller than bowheads...but are very aggressive. They call them 'devilfish'." But conservationists say the whales are acting in self-defense against criminal whalers. "The Inuits are hunting in violation of rulings by the International Whaling Commission aimed at ensuring the survival of a species that has been overhunted and is in decline," said Evan T. Allard, President of Cyber Diver Society (CDS). "Ozenna paid the ultimate price for conduct which can only be described as criminal, barbaric and environmentally destructive." In May 2002, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) ruled that declining populations of Bowhead and Gray whales must be protected from aboriginal subsistence whaling. | | Although the Inuit and other native populations cite cultural traditions as justification for whale hunts, their use of modern technology is anything but traditional and has contributed to the further decline of Gray and Bowhead whales. "This incident underscores the absurdity of the cultural argument," said Nobu Suzuki, Director of CDS Japan. "If Ozenna had been whaling in a traditional Inuit skin-covered kayak rather than a modern light-alloy vessel, he would still be alive today as would many of the whales the Inuit have killed with non-traditional weapons and equipment." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORKSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
