UPDATES.

A VIOLENT CONFRONTATION

Only two nations, Japan and Norway, defy an International Whaling Commission ban, but some traditional societies, like Alaska's Inuits, conduct small-scale ceremonial hunts. Washington State's Makah Tribe has revived a gray whale hunt that was dormant for 70 years, spawning widespread protests from environmental groups, in particular, The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, led by Captain Paul Watson (see "Sea Hunt: Who's Still Whaling?" May/June 1997). Last October, the confrontation between the Makah and Sea Shepherd grew violent when angry tribal members pelted the Sea Shepherd vessel Sirenian with rocks, injuring two crew members, and damaging the group's Zodiac raft. Three society members, including Gray Whale Campaign Expedition Leader Lisa Distefano, were briefly detained by tribal police. Sea Shepherd has now agreed not to land on Makah territory, but more confrontations are likely when tribal whaling actually starts.

"The Makah claim they're out there for their heritage," Distefano says, "but they're using .50-caliber guns and speedboats." CONTACT: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, PO Box 628, Venice, CA 90294/(310)301-SEAL.

WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM

Winter has come again to Yellowstone National Park, and the cold weather may mean more slaughter of buffalo, as the animals wander outside the park's boundaries in search of food (see "Yellowstone's Bison in the Killing Fields," In Brief, July/August 1997). The Yellowstone herd, introduced in 1902, grew to 3,400 by 1996, but has since been cut in half by federal agents trying to protect grazing cattle from the infectious virus brucellosis.

More than 1,100 bison were killed in the winter of 1996-97, though the "culling" was cut to only 11 in 1997-98 after the advocacy group Buffalo Nations began making regular patrols and herding the animals back into the park, co-founder Mike Mease reports.

The National Park Service has devised a proposed Bison Management Plan that has drawn fire from Buffalo Nations and other groups. It calls for corralling and testing the park's remaining bison for brucellosis, with the killing of only those that test positive. A more humane alternative, Plan B, would maintain a free-ranging herd, with provisions for encouraging strays to go back within park boundaries. The federal plan, says the western environmental group Wild Rockies, "sets a dangerous precedent for restricting wildlife to the artificial boundaries of parks." CONTACT: Buffalo Nations, PO Box 957, West Yellowstone, MT 59758/[phone].

GIVING SWORDFISH A BREAK

More than 270 restaurants, as well as hotels, cruise lines and airlines, have agreed to take North Atlantic swordfish off their menus since a coalition of environmental groups announced a consumer boycott of the seriously depleted fish at the beginning of 1998 (see "Swearing Off Swordfish," Currents, May/June 1998).

"We've been overwhelmed by the response to this campaign," says Lisa Speer, senior analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which runs the boycott with Sea Web. "It's something people can do on a personal level."

The NRDC is also pleased with a draft federal plan that "would restore North Atlantic swordfish within 10 years," Speer says. Under the plan, the overall catch would be reduced 27 percent, any juvenile swordfish caught (and thrown back dead) would be counted against fishermen's quotas and an important swordfish nursery ground in Florida would be closed to fishing for three months of the year. For the U.S. plan to work, it would need international cooperation. That process could take a year, and meantime, the boycott continues. CONTACT: NRDC, 40 West 20th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10011/[phone].