Cook Inlet Beluga Whales

On April 20, 2007, The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) formally proposed listing the Cook Inlet beluga whale, as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

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Beluga whales are the white, toothed whales that inhabit cold waters in and around the Arctic Ocean and sub arctic areas of Russian, Norway, Greenland, Canada and the United States, including Alaska.

They are medium sized whales, with adults averaging about fifteen feet in length.

Cook Inlet beluga whales constitute one of five distinct stocks of Alaskan beluga whales. Little scientific information is known about the Cook Inlet population, and population estimates only began in earnest in the early 1990s. Since that time, population estimates have declined and reached a steady state, rather than increasing as earlier estimates projected. (see Cook Inlet Beluga Whale population estimates)

• 1994 estimate - 663
• 1998 estimate - 349
• 2005 estimate - 278

No definitive reasons explaining the lack of population growth has been provided. However, hypothesis about multiple stress sources, such as anthropogenic noise, pollution, decreasing food supply, increased predation by Orcas, among others, have been suggested as investigative starting points (see Trustees for Alaska).

Currently the Cook Inlet beluga population is not subject to commercial whaling. Under the terms of the Marine Mammals Protection Act (MMPA) the population is co-managed by the NMFS and the Cook Inlet Marine Mammal Council, a group of native Alaskans with traditional subsistence fishing rights. Subsistence hunting of the Cook Island beluga stock has been greatly curtailed in the past few years. A NOAA press release stated only five whales were taken between 1999 and 2006. The annual subsistence hunt was cancelled for 2007.

Additional Information
Beluga Whales in Alaska

© 2007 Patricia A. Michaels