Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Population Listed As Endangered;

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— Friday the National Marine Fisheries Service announced its long-awaited decision to list the Cook Inlet beluga whale population as "endangered" under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The Cook Inlet beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is a genetically distinct and geographically isolated population whose numbers have plummeted by more than 50 percent in the past decade.  The Cook Inlet beluga population's status is so perilous that in 2006 the scientific experts at the World Conservation Union (IUCN) placed the Cook Inlet beluga on its Red List for critically threatened species. The expert agency charged by Congress with protecting marine mammals — the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission — repeatedly requested that the Fisheries Service list the species under the Endangered Species Act.

“The science was clear — and it has been for a very long time,” said scientist Craig Matkin of the North Gulf Oceanic Society. “The population is critically endangered.”

Conservation groups initially petitioned to list the population as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in March 1999.  Opposition from the state of Alaska, local cities and boroughs, and industry groups led the Fisheries Service to reject the petition.  Instead of protecting the population under the Endangered Species Act, it listed the population as "depleted" under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, stating that severe restrictions on Alaska Native hunting imposed under the latter Act would lead to recovery. But while almost no Native hunting has occurred since, the whale has not recovered.Recent surveys show the population to now hover around 375 animals, down from the Fisheries Service's early-1990s estimate of 1,300 whales.

Because the population had not recovered as predicted, in April 2006 conservation groups filed a new listing petition.  Once again, the petition was opposed by local cities and boroughs, industry groups, and Alaska. The Fisheries Service had until April 2008 to decide on listing the population, but extended that deadline for six months at the request of Alaska. The Palin administration claimed that listing was unwarranted because 2007 survey data demonstrated an upward increase in the whale’s population trend. The Fisheries Service's recent survey demonstrated, however, that there is no upward trend.

Cook Inlet is the most populated and fastest-growing Alaska watershed; thanks to oil and gas dumping, sewage discharges, contaminated runoff, and regular shipping and pipeline spills, rising pollution levels threaten the beluga whale and its habitat. Furthermore, several massive infrastructure projects — including the proposed Knik Arm Bridge, the Port of Anchorage Expansion, the Chuitna coal strip mine, and the Port MacKenzie expansion — will directly impact some of the whale’s prime habitat. Listing the Cook Inlet beluga whale will ensure that developers and scientists work together to avoid further declines.

“This ends the debate about whether the beluga should be protected under the Endangered Species Act and starts the critically important process of actually working to recover the species and protect its habitat,” said Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity.  “Hopefully the state of Alaska will now work towards protecting the beluga rather than, as with the polar bear, denying the science and suing to overturn the listing.”

Cook Inlet is a unique estuary setting supporting the southernmost of Alaska’s five beluga populations.  According to the Fisheries Service, no similar habitats exist elsewhere in the United States.

Petitioners, represented by nonprofit law firm Trustees for Alaska, are: Cook Inletkeeper, Alaska Center for the Environment, National Audubon Society - Alaska, North Gulf Oceanic Society, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Natural Resource Defense Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, Friends of the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, and Sylvia Brunner, PhD.

Contacts:

Brendan Cummings, Center for Biological Diversity, (760) 366-2232, ext. 304

John Schoen, Audubon-Alaska, (907) 276-7034

Craig Matkin, North Gulf Oceanic Society, (907)299-0677

Karla Dutton, Defenders of Wildlife, (907) 863-4461

Mike Frank, Trustees for Alaska, (907) 276-4244, ext. 116