Inlet Belugas Tagged for Endangered-Species List

By Don Hunter, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Apr. 19–The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing to list Cook Inlet beluga whales as an endangered species, environmental groups that petitioned for the listing said today.

The listing is expected to be published in the Federal Register on Friday. The groups circulated a copy of the proposed rule.

Cook Inlet’s belugas are a genetically distinct population that doesn’t interact with other beluga populations or leave the Inlet, according to agency biologists who have studied them. The Cook Inlet population, which numbered about 1,300 during the 1970s and early 1980s, plummeted during the 1990s to about 350 animals in 1998, according to federal studies.

Federal agencies and tribal organizations restricted subsistence hunting of the whales over the past several years, and it was hoped the belugas would begin to rebound. But recent studies show that has not happened. The most recent estimate of the population — based on observations last summer — is about 300.

The listing sets in motion a 12-month review, during which the NMFS will hold public hearings and identify critical habitat for the belugas. Development groups and local governments along Cook Inlet have argued that restrictions on human activity in the Inlet could cause big problems.

The groups that petitioned for the Endangered Species Act listing say it is vital if the whales are to survive.

“The government’s decision allows Cook Inlet beluga recovery to be governed by science, where it belongs,” said Randy Virgin, executive director of the Alaska Center for the Environment, in a press release issued late this morning.

“Applying the tools of the ESA to beluga recovery is the best hope for this highly imperiled whale,” said Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

In an interview, Henry Springer, executive director of the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, said existing protections for the whales under the Marine Mammal Protection Act are sufficient. Federal agencies’ decisions on how to protect the whales’ habitat could have major cost and construction implications for the proposed bridge, he said.

“I don’t think the resource agencies have an inkling of an idea how to address the habitat question,” Springer said.

Reporter Don Hunter can be reached at dhunter@adn.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

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