8-27-2018
SEKIU, Wash. — A 31-foot humpback whale struck and killed by a ship is being turned into a feast by the Makah Indian Tribe.
Tribal fisherman discovered the whale Thursday in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and a necropsy determined the juvenile male humpback died because of a broken jaw and fractured skull from colliding with a ship.
The tribe has treaty rights to hunt whales and has historically harvested stranded whales, but hasn’t done so since 1999 when hunters killed a gray whale.