00 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 21                                                                                          
01 Relating to efforts by the government of Mexico to protect gray whales.                                                 
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03  WHEREAS in the mid-nineteenth century so many gray whales were killed that they                                        
04 became classified as economically extinct; and                                                                          
05  WHEREAS the species began to recover early in the twentieth century only to be                                         
06 nearly wiped out again with the advent of mechanized whaling techniques; and                                            
07  WHEREAS the government of Mexico has supported efforts to protect gray whale                                           
08 breeding grounds in Baja, California; and                                                                               
09  WHEREAS today between 17,000 and 24,000 gray whales migrate each year from the                                         
10 Bering, Chukchi, and western Beaufort Seas to breeding grounds off Baja, California; and                                
11  WHEREAS gray whales delight more than 2,000,000 whale watchers off the western                                         
12 coast of the United States each year; and                                                                               
13  WHEREAS the International Whaling Commission has reclassified gray whales from                                         
14 protected stock to the status of sustained management stock;                                                            
01  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature expresses its appreciation for                                        
02 the efforts made by the government of Mexico to protect gray whales and to encourage their                              
03 recovery as a species.                                                                                                  
04  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Carlos Salinas de Gortari,                                    
05 President of Mexico; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski,                                
06 U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska                                  
07 delegation in Congress.