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Dr Richard Baker : Teaching : Example of Case Study teaching

The tutorial will be a discussion around the questions of

"Should the Makah be allowed to hunt whales?"

• Web Resources
• Statements from Key Stakeholders
  • Research Scientists
  • Makah
  • Environmentalists
  • Whale Watching Industry
• Your Task

Web Resources

Please look at some of the following websites. They present a range of views on this controversial issue. As when using any websites think critically about who has put the page together and for what purposes.

• http://worldcouncilofwhalers.com
• http://www.makah.com/whales.htm
• http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/mmammals/whales/mak-inf.htm
• http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/factshet/mak-inf.pdf
• http://www.anti-whaling.com/
• http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/PR2/Conservation_and_Recovery_Program/makah_EA.html
• http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/7431/whaling.htm
• http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/maka01.shtml
• http://www.cnie.org/nae/cases/makah/

Statements from Key Stakeholders

Read the following summary of some view points.

Research Scientists:

Professor John Harwood, of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St Andrews, UK, told BBC News Online: "It's a very tricky decision. Scientifically, we do have the technology now to let whales be exploited with very little risk of extinction. The question is whether it could be implemented in practice. You can sympathize with those countries that want the right to whale, but if the ban ends it will be easier for illegal whalers to sneak their catches onto the market. A lot of people will argue that it would open the door to abuse - that no matter how sophisticated the mathematics and the technology, if there's money to be made then someone will find a way round the rules. "

Makah:

"Anything that will save the whales, that's what I am for", Alberta Thompson said. She sees no subsistence need for the whale or genuine revival of tradition in the hunt. "They are not that hungry. And tradition? I don't see any tradition in towing a canoe with a motorboat. That's not the whaling I heard my elders talk about. They said it would get kids off drugs and booze, but this town hasn't changed; it's like any other town.'" - The Seattle Times, June 10, 2000

Josh Noel dreams of being a paddler in the hunt next spring. Danaye Denney's little brother can't wait to get older and bigger and to grab a harpoon. Both high school sophomores were on the beach here Tuesday afternoon as tribal members carved the last vestiges of meat and blubber from a 3-year-old female gray whale harpooned the day before. The hunt and kill -- given a worldwide audience by Seattle television crews and helicopters -- ended seven decades of what tribal members described as a vacuum in the spiritual and historical culture of the Makah.

The two young Makah saw the hunt as the victory of an ancient tradition that gave them new pride in their heritage. The whale hunt made real to them what had largely been oral history and black and white photos. "We're a lot more than 'just a small tribe', " Denney said. [Pride swells in youngsters of Makah tribe The Oregonian May 19th 1999]

Environmentalists:

"While I have great respect for cultural diversity and tradition, how far must we go to preserve things that are no longer acceptable? Would we also consider allowing peoples that had traditions of cannibalism, head hunting, slavery and scalping to practice these acts to preserve their cultures? [C. and J.Simpson. "The Gray...Today!" Whales on the Net, http://whales.magna.com.au/alert/makah/simpson.html]

"We're obviously very upset that the Makah went ahead with killing an innocent, sentient creature in such a bloody and untraditional way," said Jake Conroy of the anti-whaling group Sea Defense Alliance.

Whale Watching Industry:

"What disgusts me so much about the whole native thing is their constantly going on about ceremony and culture. If they are so hell bent on going back to their roots, why the hell do they insist on : driving cars, using internal combustion engines, fibreglass, aluminum, roads, shopping centres, and all the other stuff that has improved their lives since the coming of the "White Man" If their culture is so important to them in this whale hunt, why are they not out in the woods carving canoes, weaving Cedar Bark clothing, offing a few seals for their 'traditional' floats for the hunt, weaving miles of Cedar Bark rope, preparing harpoons with clam shell points, being celibate for the required amount of time as their ancestors did, and going out to the kill in their canoes with no radios, lifejackets, flares and all the other stuff that is not traditional." [Jamie's Whaling Station, http://whales.magna.com.au/alert/makah/bray.html]

Your Task

Instructions for your one page summary

1. List as many stakeholders as possible with a position on whether the Makah should be allowed to whale hunt. Summarise the position each has in a single sentence.
2. Write a one sentence summary of the Makah whale hunting controversy
3. List a range of cultural practices from other societies and try and rank them above and below a line that indicates ones you would or would not support eg would you for example support the:

• Hindu suttee practice of widows being burnt on their husband funeral pyre
• British fox hunting
• Aboriginal dugong hunting

1. The 1980s ANU tradition of Bush Week students biting off the heads of live chickens?
2. List a range of foods that you would and would not eat yourself.
3. Think about the basis by which you drew your personal lines in point 3 an 4. Outline the reasons you have drawn the line where you did. Try to think whether there any principles you have used in making your decision.

The aim of this discussion is to explore an interesting case example of how contested environmental policy issues can be. To prepare for this discussion you will need to spend about two hours on the web before the class looking at some of the follow sites and completing the above 5 points on your one page summary. NB you are expected to have done 2 hours work on the web and completing your one page summary BEFORE THE TUT STARTS.