Public Comment – Feb. 27, 2006, to March 29, 2006
Partly in response to public comments received during the fall 2005 scoping period, NOAA Fisheries Service expanded the scope of the EIS to include issuance of International Whaling Commission quotas under the Whaling Convention Act (WCA). The Makah are seeking NOAA authorization under under both the MMPA and the WCA. For more information, please refer to the following documents:
Public Scoping – Aug. 25, 2005, to Oct. 4, 2005
NOAA Fisheries Service published two notices of intent to conduct public scoping meetings and to prepare an EIS related to the Makah Tribe’s continuation of treaty right hunting of gray whales. Three meetings were announced (PDF 28KB) Aug. 25, 2005, and held in Washington State at Neah Bay (Oct. 5), Port Angeles (Oct. 6), and Seattle (Oct. 11). A fourth meeting was announced (PDF 62KB) Oct. 4, 2005, and held in the Washington, D.C. (Oct. 18), area after NOAA received requests for a meeting in that location.
The public scoping meetings were held in workshop format to provide the opportunity for agency staff and the public to interact in constructive, small group discussions. (For more information about the format of the meetings, see the Sept. 9, 2005, Dear Interested Parties letter (PDF 32KB)). NOAA Fisheries Service received public input on the resources to be analyzed and the possible alternatives to include in the EIS, and also received input by written comment during the public scoping period.
The Northwest Region would like to thank all those individuals and organizations that participated in a constructive public process, and all those individuals and organizations that provided comment to assist us in our NEPA analysis.
In addition to the Federal Register notices of intent and the Dear Interested Parties letter noted above, NOAA distributed the following documents at the public scoping meetings:
Aug. 25, 2005, News Release (PDF 110KB)
