OceanLaw On-Line Paper No. 19, April 2003

Domestic Implementation of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling Quota: The Makah Saga Continues

Casenote: Anderson and ors v Evans and ors
United States Court of Appeals, 20 December 2002

Joanna Mossop
Lecturer in International Law
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract
A recent decision from the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in the United States means that the Makah tribe faces ongoing difficulties getting national permission to implement a whaling quota impliedly granted by the IWC.  The decision in Anderson v Evans highlights both the impact that domestic opposition to whaling can have on the implementation of decisions by the IWC, but also the difficulties caused by the unusual terms of the quota granted by the IWC in 1997.