Yereth Rosen

The National Marine Fisheries Service proposed on Thursday listing beluga whales that swim in Alaska’s Cook Inlet as endangered due to a sharp decline in their population

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, US; April 23, 2007.- The federal agency proposed the endangered listing — a status granted to populations considered in imminent threat of extinction — for beluga whales.

The population of the small white whales is down to an estimated 302 from about 1,300 in the 1970s, according to the Fisheries Service. An agency study estimated that the population has a 26 percent chance of extinction within 100 years.

The agency will have a year to make its final decision about listing the belugas as endangered, said Fisheries spokeswoman Sheela McLean.

Environmentalists who have been seeking Endangered Species Act protections hailed the proposal for listing the Cook Inlet belugas, whose swimming patterns off the Anchorage coastline make them a favorite among tourists and local residents.

“Should Alaska let this population fizzle out? That would be a black mark,” said John Schoen, senior scientist at Audubon Alaska, one of the several organization that petitioned for the listing.

“The population is so small now that even a natural event like a stranding or a killer whale predation or something like that could put it over the brink,” he said.

Jason Brune, executive director of the Resource Development Council for Alaska, said it will not support the decision.

The extra costs and delays tied to the listing will affect commercial activities in Cook Inlet, including oil and gas exploration, fishing, municipal wastewater treatment and expansion plans, Brune said.

The Resource Development Council and other development advocates have fought Endangered Species Act listing, pointing to the fact that government scientists believe that over-hunting by Alaska Natives — not any industrial activity — triggered the beluga tailspin.

In 1999, Native groups and the government reached an agreement to nearly halt the subsistence hunt of Cook Inlet belugas. Since that year, only five whales have been hunted by residents of the Native villages.

(Reuters)

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