Commissioner Gerard van Bohemen accused South Korea of putting the whale population at risk. He also cited Japan as having not contributed to science for several years despite undertaking scientific whaling. New Zealand's stated position may be seen by its media as less solid than Australia's on the matter given that its indigenous people are pushing forward with plans, unopposed by the government, to recommence whaling there. The people of Ulsan have also traditionally and contemporarily eaten whale meat. South Korea's representative at the IWC said that "this is not a forum for moral debate. This is a forum for legal debate. As a responsible member of the commission we do not accept any such categorical, absolute proposition that whales should not be killed or caught." The sale and purchase of whale meat is allowed if an official certificate is issued for bycatch, where whales die when they are caught in nets used to catch other fish. Bycatch of whales and dolphines reached 2,751 in 2012 and 1,849 in 2014. Ulsan Environmental Education Institute director Oh Yeong-ae argued "The policy of allowing sale of whales caught incidentally may be encouraging illegal whaling". United States In the United States, beluga whaling is widely carried out, catching about 300 belugas per year, monitored by the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee. The annual catch ranges between 250 and 600 per year. Subsistence hunting of the bowhead whale is carried out by nine different indigenous Alaskan communities, and is managed by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission which reports to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The hunt takes around 50 bowhead whales a year from a population of about 10,500 in Alaskan waters. Conservationists fear this hunt is not sustainable, though the IWC Scientific Committee, the same group that provided the above population estimate, projects a population growth of 3.2% per year. The hunt also took an average of one or two gray whales each year until 1996. The quota was reduced to zero in that year due to sustainability concerns. A future review may result in the gray whale hunt being resumed. Bowhead whales weigh approximately 5–10 times as much as minke whales. The Makah tribe in Washington state also reinstated whaling in 1999, despite protests from animal rights groups. They are currently seeking to resume whaling of the gray whale, a right recognized in the Treaty of Neah Bay, within limits (Article 4