MAKAH INDIANS PREPARE FOR WHALING NEAR NEAH BAY, 1998-10-02 (photo)

Docked at the Makah Marina on October 1, the Hummingbird is a 30-foot cedar canoe similar to the canoe members of the Makah tribe will use to hunt gray whales off the coast of Neah Bay, Washington. The Makahs, who have been granted permission by the International Whaling Commission to hunt up to five gray whales a year, will hunt the whales via eight-man traditional paddling canoes like the Hummingbird,using a harpoon and a .50-caliber rifle to kill the animal. The first day of a tribal whale hunting season, which some anti-whaling activists have vowed to disrupt, passed without incident on Thursday as the Makah Indians kept their harpoons in storage. APB/ME