Story Created:
Jan 11, 2012 at 9:21 AM AKDT
Story Updated:
Jan 11, 2012 at 9:21 AM AKDT
The National Marine Fisheries Service says it found fewer Belugas in Cook Inlet this summer than it has in almost 20 years. But the people who count the whales from the air during their annual survey say their figures aren’t as drastic as they sound.
The count this summer was 285, that is a full 20 percent fewer whales than they found the year before, but federal biologists don’t think the drop was that dramatic.
If you’ve ever tried to spot Belugas from the shore, you can imagine how difficult it would be to see those little white dots from the air, which is how they do their surveys.
What biologists really think is that the Belugas have continued to decline at a rate of about 1 percent a year, which in some sense is actually an improvement.
And of course Belugas are now listed on the Endangered Species List to try and aid that recovery.
The state has been fighting the Endangered Species designation in court, but so far not successfully. There’s concern that giving further protections to Belugas in the Inlet could spell trouble for the port expansion and other development projects. But a judge ruled as recently as November that those protections should stay in place, so it’s an issue we’ll be following.
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