Study Proposes Listing Beluga Whales As Endangered

WASHINGTON – The dwindling beluga whale population in Alaska’s famed Cook Inlet could be extinct in 100 years and should be listed as an endangered species, a federal agency said Thursday.

The proposal is being made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, which has been studying a petition brought by environmentalists a year ago.

The agency’s findings, which will be published Friday, are being strenuously opposed by business and industry groups _ backed by all three members of Alaska’s congressional delegation _ who say the designation is unwarranted and economically damaging.

The 17-page report, which is not a final ruling, bypasses the lesser designation of "threatened" and goes straight to "endangered," which provides a greater level of protection for some 300 belugas that remain in the Inlet.

The proposed listing sets in motion a 12-month review, during which the Fisheries Service will hold public hearings and identify critical habitat for the belugas. If the decision is upheld, the Bush administration could develop new rules requiring agencies such as the U.S. Corps of Engineers to consult with the Fisheries Service to ensure that no actions are taken to jeopardize the whales.

While still preliminary, the decision is a huge victory for local and national environmental groups that have been trying to get the belugas listed as an endangered species for the past decade.

"This is a very important milestone," said Bob Shavelson of Cook Inletkeeper, part of a coalition of environmental groups that petitioned the Fisheries Service a year ago.

Development groups and local governments along Cook Inlet have argued that restrictions on human activity in the Inlet could cause big problems. Among the concerns: Gas and oil development, commercial fishing, the $340 million expansion of the Port of Anchorage, and the proposed bridge across the Knik Arm portion of the Inlet, connecting the municipality of Anchorage and the Mat-Su borough.

"All it’s going to do is impose additional costs and delays, at no added benefit," said Jason Brune, executive director of the Resources Development Council, a statewide business association that represents energy, mining, tourism and Native corporations.

While the new administration of Republican Gov. Sarah Palin has taken no formal position on endangered species designation, state officials expressed some misgivings Thursday.

"We are very, very concerned about the likely impact of such a decision on south central Alaska, in the midst of all the economic activity in Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula," said Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd. "We will be looking at this with some intensity."

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich also weighed in with his some questions.

"When you now list them as endangered, you don’t know what that’s going to require," he said. One potential impact could be changes to the city’s water and waste water utilities, which, he said, could leave "city taxpayers stuck with the bill."

Another could be on the city’s port expansion, which could have national security implications due to the military’s reliance on the port.

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.

Environmentalists minimized the economic effects of the endangered species designation. "If we’re going to move forward with responsible development, this simply requires that we do things in a way that a consensus of scientists finds won’t have an adverse impact on the whales," Shavelson said.

Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, a national environmental group that is also working to protect Alaska’s polar bears, said the Endangered Species Act rarely blocks development.

"The purpose of the designation is to protect whales, not to stop development," he said.

But that view finds no takers among Alaska’s representatives in Washington, who argue that the designation is aimed more at hindering the region’s industrial progress than helping whales.

"This is being spearheaded by people who want to stop development in the Cook Inlet region," Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said in a recent interview.

Rep. Don Young, D-Alaska, was more emphatic on Thursday: "This whole thing is totally out of whack," he said.

Both challenge the science underlying the Fishery Service report, particularly the agency’s conclusion that the Cook Inlet’s belugas are a genetically distinct population that doesn’t interact with other beluga populations.

"I don’t think there’s a shortage of beluga whales," Young said. "There’s just a shortage of beluga whales coming into the Inlet."

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.

"I’m not yet convinced that we fully understand what the situation is with the belugas," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

Young and Stevens say the government should examine whether the drop could be explained by a decline of fish in the Inlet.

Brune, a biologist, remains convinced that the decline was caused by the heavy toll of subsistence hunting in the 1990s, and that the whales have yet to recover, largely because of their long gestation and nursing periods.

"They’re not mice, it will take a lot longer for them to recover," he said.

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

Either way, local industry will do its best to survive, said Marc Van Dongen, director of Port MacKenzie, which runs a barge and ferry dock on the Inlet.

"I don’t see it as shutting things down," said Van Dongen, noting that most of the port’s activities already receive close environmental scrutiny from the Fisheries Service. "We’ll work with them. We understand the problem."

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(c) 2007, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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