In connection with the poll on the Makah whaling request that was held by MSNBC on "The News with Brian Williams", a number of audio clips were posted on MSNBC's Web site. Below you can read a transcript of these audio clips. The question being debated was:

Should the Makah tribe be allowed to resume the hunting of grey whales?

And the participants were:

CAPT. PAUL WATSON, SEA SHEPARD SOC
GERALD LEAPE, GREENPEACE
GEORG BLICHFELDT, HIGH NORTH ALLIANCE
REP.JACK METCALF, R-WA
MARCI PARKER, MAKAH TRIBE

CAPT. PAUL WATSON, SEA SHEPARD SOC.
"The real reason for this initiative by the Makah is because they know very well that whale meat goes for $80 per kilo in Japan, and that one of those whales is worth close to one million dollars. So it's; what they have their minds set on here is a commercial whaling operation. And that doesn't just mean the five whales that they say they want to kill - which will probably escalate quite rapidly after they get it off the ground - it will have implications for literally thousands of whales because Norway and Japan and those other nations that want to go whaling, like Russia and Iceland are looking at this very closely because they know that if the Makah are given permission to take whales that it will undermine any integrity the United States has in the international marine conservation movement."

GEORG BLICHFELDT, HIGH NORTH ALLIANCE
"The Makahs have been whaling for 2,000 years. All the way until these white imperialists came there and were more eager to take the whales because this oil and so on was so very important to them. And then they raped that resource. And the Makahs were not able to continue their tradition - and the Makahs had been very, very patiently waiting for this resource to come back again. And that has happened now. But now the white people have changed their minds. Suddenly they want to ban all use of this resource."

GERALD LEAPE, GREENPEACE
"Greenpeace does not support any whaling programme, we just don't oppose truly subsistence whaling. But if there's ever a commercial element, we'd be front of the line, in their face, opposing their programme."

REP.JACK METCALF, R-WA
"I was in complete shock when I heard that we were thinking of killing grey whales - or any whales - but we heard about it. Some of the elders from the tribe said "No way. We don't want this. We do not believe this is a good idea." And so we got on to it. We went ahead and did the homework and found out that there was a proposal to authorise 5 grey whales to be taken by one tribe, and if they got it, several other tribes on up into Canada and Alaska said "Well, if they can hunt them, we can hunt them." And I just think that the American people - who have a special relationship with whales - I don't think that they're ready for any kind of whale harvest at this time. We've had a terrible battle, you know behind the scenes with both Norway and Japan, and their efforts to hunt whales. And we have said "No way!" and if we were to authorise it here and now it would make our policy look very - I mean it would undermine that policy completely."

MARCI PARKER, MAKAH TRIBE
"It's not for, we're not going to hunt the grey whales for, commercial purposes. You know even though we've had the rumours that we are going to sell them to the Japanese, or you know, different countries like that. Our purpose for our whaling is for ceremonial and subsistence. We've requested up to 5 grey whales but that's not to say that we'll take them all. You know after our first hunt we might find that we only needed one a year, but our request is for up to 5 whales per year. To resume whaling it would be, you know, like another piece of the puzzle that's been kind of out of place, and by doing this it will help push that piece back into the puzzle to make a complete picture."

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