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NOAA publishes beluga recovery plan Fisheries Service wants public comments on its proposed way to help restore the population of the Cook Inlet beluga whales Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service has published a draft version of its recovery plan for the Cook Inlet beluga whale. The agency wants comments on the plan by July 14. The Fisheries Service listed the Cook Inlet beluga population as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2008 and designated a critical habitat for the whales in 2011. The Endangered Species Act also requires the agency to develop a recovery plan.
The ultimate goal of the plan is to enable the whale population to recover to a point where the whales can be de-listed.
“The recovery actions recommended in this draft plan are based on the best available science,” said Jim Balsiger, NOAA Fisheries Alaska regional administrator, when announcing publication of the plan on May 14. “We look forward to receiving public comments to help us develop a final recovery plan, and then working with the State of Alaska and other partners to implement recovery actions to benefit Cook Inlet belugas.”
According to NOAA, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has welcomed the release of the draft plan, saying that in the absence of a plan future Cook Inlet development projects could be hampered. The listing of the beluga whales has caused concern in Alaska because of potential restrictions on commercial activities as a consequence of measures taken to protect the whales.
Population decline While beluga whales in general are quite abundant, the Cook Inlet beluga, an isolated population segment of the species, has declined in numbers from an estimated population in excess of 1,200 in the 1970s to some 300 more recently. The latest count, from a 2014 survey, is 340.
Although mandated restrictions on subsistence hunting of the whales introduced in 1999 were expected to result in the species’ recovery, the population did not increase as expected after the hunting was curtailed. Fisheries Service scientists have assessed a continuing population decline at a rate of 1.3 percent per year since 1999 but the reasons for this decline remain something of an enigma. However, the recovery plan identifies three threats to the animals that are of particular concern: catastrophic events such as natural disasters and oil spills; the cumulative impacts of multiple factors that stress the animals; and noise the in animals’ environment.
Lesser threats consist of disease, habitat loss, loss of prey, and unauthorized take of the animals. Threats of low concern consist of subsistence hunting, pollution and predation.
The plan sets out a series of actions that address the threats of high or medium concern. For example, a program of noise monitoring in beluga critical habitat areas would identify the cumulative impacts of multiple noise sources. The plan also proposes research and monitoring activities, leading to an adaptive approach to recovery efforts, as a greater understanding of the threats to the animals is gained.
The plan involves the appointment of a recovery coordinator and a recovery implementation task force to oversee implementation of the plan actions.
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