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State says endangered species designation not needed Department of Fish and Game says Cook Inlet beluga whales not threatened with extinction, condition required for listing Petroleum News Alaska
Cook Inlet beluga whales will not be designated an endangered species under Alaska’s endangered species statute, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Frank Rue said July 13.
Rue said the whales, which have inhabited Cook Inlet for at least 8,000 years, are not threatened with extinction, a condition that must be met before declaring an animal endangered. He also noted that state law does not allow him to list individual stocks or populations as endangered unless the scientific community has formally recognized them as a bone fide “subspecies.” This is not the case with Cook Inlet belugas.
Rue’s decision came in response to a petition filed in October 1999 by Trustees for Alaska, an Anchorage-based law firm representing six environmental groups. Until harvest restrictions were set in place in 1999, Cook Inlet’s beluga population was in a rapid decline.
“While we share Trustee’s concern about the health of this important population, we believe the restrictions which are now in place under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act will enable the population to recover,” Rue said.
Slight increase in population Rue said studies conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service already show a slight increase in the Cook Inlet population from an estimated 347 whales in 1998 to 357 in 1999.
Prior to this, the population had declined dramatically from an estimated 653 in 1994 to 347 in 1998, a 47 percent decline.
Both NMFS and Fish and Game believe over harvest of the whales by hunters was the primary cause of the decline.
Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service has primary responsibility for managing beluga whales. The Act prohibits harvest of the popular white whales, except by Alaska Natives living along the coastline. This harvest can only be restricted after NMFS makes a formal determination that a particular population is “depleted.”
Congress halted hunting In 1999, Congress took the unusual step of halting all hunting of the whales until October 2000, unless a co-management agreement was signed between NMFS and Alaska Native organizations representing beluga hunters. As a result, little if any harvest occurred in 1999 and none is expected during the summer of 2000.
In January 1999, Fish and Game petitioned NMFS to declare Cook Inlet belugas “depleted” so that the subsistence harvest could be limited. In May, NMFS made this determination and began the process of preparing regulations to limit the harvest.
NMFS also received petitions to list belugas as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. However, it turned down these requests after determining that belugas are not in danger of extinction and are not likely to become so in the foreseeable future.
Rue said he believes NMFS is on the right track and is optimistic the Cook Inlet population will rebound. He also noted that the Department of Natural Resources recently removed important beluga habitat from oil and gas lease offerings in Cook Inlet.
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