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Protection of belugas could threaten Southcentral economy Anchorage Chamber of Commerce panel describes concerns for whales, some possible results of National Marine Fisheries Service regulation Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
The number of beluga whales in Cook Inlet is in decline and the National Marine Fisheries Service is deciding whether the whales should be listed as depleted, threatened or endangered.
Economic impacts from listing the beluga whales could affect all of Southcentral Alaska, speakers warned the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce July 12.
Native hunters have requested that NMFS regulate the hunt, but the agency has said it cannot unless the whales are listed, said Judy Brady, executive director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. Whales are hunted for subsistence by both local and non-local Natives, Brady said, and are also hunted by Natives commercially — with the blubber sold in Anchorage, allowable under the National Marine Fisheries Act because Anchorage is classified as a village.
Trustees for Alaska has filed to have the belugas listed as endangered — identifying hunting as a primary source, but also identifying commercial fishing, sport fishing, port activity, municipal water discharges, noise from the military including aircraft, oil and gas and ecotourism as having an impact on the beluga whales, Brady said.
Ken Freeman, executive director of the Resource Development Council Inc., said that a decision was expected from NMFS by mid-July. The agency, Freeman said, has indicated it feels listing may be warranted. Requests to extend the comment period were denied by the agency, he said, and noted that NMFS has never been known to change its mind once a decision was issued.
Legislature asks authority for NMFS to regulate without listing The Alaska Legislature, said Rep. Gail Phillips, R-Homer, has asked Congress and NMFS to act to reverse the decline — and has asked Congress to give the NMFS the authority to regulate Native hunting without the whales being listed.
Phillips said that commercial fishing, sports fishing, oil and gas and any other human use of Cook Inlet is threatened if the whale are listed.
Roger Graves, environmental affairs manager at the Port of Anchorage, said Trustees of Alaska forced a reevaluation of an approved dredging project in Cook Inlet — in an area not frequented by the whales — four days after the operation began because, citing concerns about the beluga population in Cook Inlet.
Joe Griffith of Chugach Electric Association Inc. said Chugach is in the process of laying four additional cables from Beluga to Anchorage — without which the city won’t have sufficient power — and called the listing of beluga whales a threat to “every human activity in the area.”
Brian Crewdson, assistant to the general manager of Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility, said that the largest of the municipality’s three wastewater treatment plants puts 32 million gallons of water a day into Cook Inlet at Point Woronzof. The utility, Crewdson said, does extensive monitoring as a requirement of its permits, and annual testing has found no impact for the treated water, but, he said, worst case if belugas are listed the utility could be forced to add a $500 million filtration system to the plant.
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