Jet ski clash reflects tricky role of Coast Guard

Two days of Makah whale hunting and passionate anti-whaling protests have put the spotlight on the orange and white boats whose mission it is to keep the determined groups from clashing at sea.

A tragedy was narrowly averted near Neah Bay, Clallam County, yesterday when a protester at the helm of a Jet Ski was intercepted and run over by a 23-foot Coast Guard boat.

Erin Abbott, 24, Seattle, was in satisfactory condition with shoulder and rib injuries at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, where she was taken by helicopter after the collision.

That clash, videotaped and broadcast widely, has sparked more protests from all sides of the controversial Makah whale hunt. And it has dramatized the complicated job of the Coast Guard, a theservice charged with promoting safety while enforcing laws in a volatile atmosphere.

The Coast Guard chased down the protester, rescued and evacuated her to the hospital, and arrested her for violating the 500-yard "exclusionary zone" around the Makah whalers.

That's a lot of hats for one agency, admitted Coast Guard Admiral Paul Blayney, the regional commander. "We generally don't have any trouble sorting out these functions. But sometimes they blur, and the Makah situation is an example of that."

Blayney and others stressed both the Makah whalers and the protesters have a legal right to do what they are doing.

"Whaling is controversial," he said. "Conflict was a given from the beginning. We have urged the protesters to move the debate off the water and into another forum, but we have not been successful."

The collision was "unfortunate," said Cmdr. Ed Kaetzel, the Coast Guard's operations officer in Port Angeles. "Everyone's concern is heightened. There's a lot of enthusiasm out there on the part of the protesters."

The Coast Guard's tactics were "over the top, extreme," said Jake Conroy, vice president of Ocean Defense International, which has gathered boats and protesters to halt the hunt.

In yesterday's clash, the protester initially sped past the Coast Guard boats and within a few feet of the Makah whaling crew - a tactic that came dangerously close to capsizing the canoe, said Lt. Comdr. Andy Connor, of the Coast Guard office in Seattle.

Minutes later, as the Jet Ski appeared to be turning for another pass, the Coast Guard attempted to intercept it. The prop from the 115-horsepower outboard motor on the Coast Guard's boat somehow missed Abbott, who was thrown into the water and went under the boat.

The Coast Guard's tactics at Neah Bay are, first, to warn protesters with a megaphone; then attempt to get between protesters and their target; and then divert the oncoming vessel by "shouldering" it away from the tribal canoe, said John Moss, a Coast Guard spokesman in Seattle.

The larger Coast Guard boat is more seaworthy, but less maneuverable than a Jet Ski, Moss said. And boats "don't have brakes and can't stop on a dime."

The Coast Guard said Abbott was arrested and will be charged with a federal crime for violating the exclusionary zone. The maximum penalty is a fine of $250,000 and up to six years in prison, Moss said. A second protester, Erin O'Connell, was also arrested and both protesters' personal-water craft were seized.

The Coast Guard has attempted to alert everyone involved at Neah Bay that all vessels must stay 500 yards from the whaling canoe, Moss said. The message has been announced over loudspeakers and broadcast over marine-band radios and Coast Guard crews are constantly informing people, he added.

Abbott, in an interview from her hospital bed in Port Angeles, said she knew about the exclusionary zone around the canoe, but had not heard any verbal warnings to stay away.

The 500-yard zone was created by law-enforcement officials in July 1998 when the Makah's first announced their intention to take a gray whale. They killed their first whale in 70 years last May.

The zone is for safety, Moss explained. Once harpooned, a whale is unpredictable and can be dangerous, he said. After harpooning the whale, the tribe intends to kill it quickly with rounds from a 50-caliber rifle. A round from such a rifle can travel a long way and possibly skip off the water, Moss said.

Conroy, of the Ocean Defense group, said the Coast Guard should be charged with a crime for using "excessive force" against a "nonviolent" protester.

Indeed, the clash failed to dampen the passions of the protesters. "Our tactics are not going to change," Conroy said. "We are going to continue to do our best to allow our great whales a safe route to their grounds in Alaska," he said.

The clash also failed to dissuade the Makah whale hunters, who at least three times yesterday came within striking distance of their prey.

"It's unfortunate that they would send a young lady in to violate federal law, into a place where there is weaponry," said Keith Johnson, president of the Makah whaling commission. "We're just happy she wasn't hurt worse than she was."

Johnson said the whaling crew is maintaining its focus on the hunt, despite the protesters and constant buzz of helicopters and airplanes angling for glimpses of the action.

The Coast Guard's curious position at Neah Bay is not new. Craig Allen, a former Coast Guard officer who now teaches at the University of Washington Law School, recalled when he stood between the Trident submarine Ohio and a fleet of protesters in Puget Sound in late 1982.

"It was the same problem: a lot of passionate people in not-very-seaworthy craft, trying to stop a nuclear submarine that was not very maneuverable. They were trying to get close enough to make their statement, and we were caught in the middle."

Part of the problem is that an invisible security zone is "virtually unenforceable," he said. "If people can encroach on that zone with impunity, you have a real problem and somebody's going to get hurt."