Beluga listing refused - single activity -- hunting - can be regulated - industry rejoices

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Endangered listing rejected for Cook whales

Friday, June 23, 2000

By Yereth Rosen

 

ENN News Service

 

The beluga whale population in Alaska's Cook Inlet, which has dropped by

nearly half in the past six years, is not so imperiled that it needs

protection under the Endangered Species Act, a federal agency ruled

Thursday.

 

The National Marine Fisheries Service formally rejected a petition by

environmental groups to list the population of small white whales as

endangered or threatened.

 

The number of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, the wide channel linking

Anchorage with the Gulf of Alaska, has dropped from 653 in 1994 to 357 last

year, according to NMFS' latest count. The inlet has a historic carrying

capacity of 1,300 belugas.

 

But the agency said an Endangered Species Act was not needed to protect the

inlet's belugas because a single activity --hunting by native Alaskans - had

caused the decline, and it could be regulated under another law.

 

The agency on May 31 classified the whales as depleted, a designation

authorized under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. With the depleted

designation in place, NMFS said, it was permitted to limit the hunt of

belugas by Alaskan natives.

 

Based on the agency's review " and a thorough review of human-related

activities in Cook Inlet, we are confident that we have identified the

source of the decline, which is over-harvesting, " said Jim Balsinger, Alaska

Regional Administrator for NMFS.

 

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, only Alaskan natives - Eskimos,

Indians and Aleuts - may hunt whales.

 

Cook Inlet is a busy shipping corridor and the site of several commercial

and sport fishing harvests, as well as oil and gas production.

 

Carol Tocco, a Juneau-based spokeswoman for NMFS, said the agency had

concluded that non-hunting activities would not hamper the whales' recovery.

" We really don't have concrete evidence that would be the case, " Tocco said.

 

Six environmental groups petitioned NMFS in March 1999 to list the Cook

Inlet beluga whales as threatened or endangered. In May, when NMFS' decision

was two months overdue, the groups sued to prompt a ruling. The six are

represented by Trustees for Alaska, an Anchorage-based environmental law

firm.

 

Trustees for Alaska attorney Jack Sterne said the plaintiffs would either

amend their lawsuit or file a new action to demand that NMFS give the whales

protection under the Endangered Species Act.

 

" The most glaring thing about it is they admit right in the federal register

notice that there is no other population of marine mammals that has gotten

as low as they are that is not on the endangered species list, " Sterne said.

 

The environmentalists argue that even if hunting caused the whales' decline,

other human activities could inhibit their recovery. Threats include

entanglement in fishing gear, oil spills, seismic testing, industrial and

municipal pollutants, noise from ships, planes and other watercraft, along

with strandings, predation and disease, they have said.

 

The head of a pro-industry group hailed NMFS' decision.

 

" We're glad to see that the ESA listing is not going to be out there, " said

Ken Freeman, executive director of the Resource Development Council of

Alaska. Everyone wants to see beluga whales rebound, he said, " but limiting

community and resource development activities ... is not the answer. "

 

Native hunters voluntarily halted their Cook Inlet beluga harvests last

year.

 

Copyright 2000, Reuters