[Vision2020] Beluga Whale Protection Bolstered; Palin Objects

[Saundra Lund]

October 18, 2008
Beluga Whale Protection Bolstered; Palin Objects 
By WILLIAM YARDLEY

The federal government on Friday placed beluga whales that live in Cook
Inlet in Alaska on the endangered species list, rejecting efforts by Gov.
Sarah Palin and others against increased protection.

The relatively small, whitish whales, sometimes visible from downtown
Anchorage, declined by almost 50 percent in the late 1990s, and federal
scientists say they have not rebounded despite a series of protections,
including a halt to subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives. About 375 whales
have been counted in Cook Inlet each of the last two years, according to
scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

"In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not
recovering," James W. Balsiger, the acting assistant administrator for the
fisheries agency, said in a written statement. The whales are in danger of
extinction, Dr. Balsiger said. 

The announcement, made on a predetermined schedule under the Endangered
Species Act, drew further attention to Ms. Palin's positions on
environmental issues. The governor, the Republican nominee for vice
president, has come under scrutiny for her ambiguous statements about
climate change and her administration's failed effort earlier this year to
prevent another species, the polar bear, from being listed as threatened.
The state is suing the federal government over the polar bear listing.

As with the polar bear, Ms. Palin's administration opposed the beluga
listing in part because of its potential to restrict coastal and offshore
oil and gas development. The beluga listing could also affect other
projects, including the expansion of the Port of Anchorage and a proposed
bridge over Knik Arm that would connect Anchorage to the Matanuska-Susitna
Valley and Ms. Palin's hometown, Wasilla.

"I am especially concerned," the governor said in a written statement in
August 2007, when her administration submitted documents to fight the
listing, "that an unnecessary federal listing and designation of critical
habitat would do serious long-term damage to the vibrant economy of the Cook
Inlet area."

On Friday, Ms. Palin said the state had had "serious concerns about the low
population of belugas in Cook Inlet for many years," but she called the
listing "premature." Her administration challenged the federal government's
data, as it did with the polar bear decision. 

The commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Denby S. Lloyd,
said state data showed "an increase of more than 30 percent in the
population, from 278 to 375," since 2004. (The National Marine Fisheries
Service said estimates had been as low as 278 in 2005.)

Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, a Democrat seeking to unseat Senator Ted
Stevens, a Republican, also criticized the listing, citing its potential to
impede the port expansion and result in "hugely expensive new requirements
to Anchorage's wastewater treatment." Also opposed were Senator Lisa
Murkowski and Representative Don Young, both Republicans. 

The Cook Inlet belugas are among five beluga populations in United States
waters, all in Alaska, according to the fisheries agency. 

Since 2000, the whales have been listed as depleted under the Marine Mammal
Protection Act. The fisheries agency made its decision Friday in response to
a 2006 petition from environmental groups. An environmental lawyer in
Anchorage, Peter Van Tuyn, said he was pleased and somewhat surprised that
the agency had agreed that the whales were endangered. 

"I have never seen this agency take any more action than it was forced to,"
Mr. Van Tuyn said, "so going through to endangered is great. I think the
population is so darn small that they had no choice."

The fisheries agency said the recovery of the whales was "potentially
hindered" by several factors, including mass strandings, in which large
groups of whales can be trapped on land during rapid tide changes that
affect Cook Inlet; general development; oil and gas exploration; and
pollution. The agency said it would "identify habitat essential to the
conservation of Cook Inlet belugas in a separate rule-making within a year."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/us/18beluga.html?ref=politics