NOAA Fisheries News Releases
NEWS RELEASE
December 28, 2007
Sheela McLean
(907) 586-7032
Stephen Meyer
(907) 586-7225
NOAA Fisheries invites comments on plan for Beluga Whale Subsistence Hunt
NOAA Fisheries Service today released a draft plan that reviews alternatives for the subsistence hunt of Cook Inlet beluga whales. Public comments on the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement are due by March 4, 2008.
This document looks at how the subsistence hunt of belugas would affect the recovery of belugas in Cook Inlet said NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional Administrator Jim Balsiger. “If the population recovers sufficiently, the harvest plan will allow us to work with Alaska Native hunters for a subsistence hunt of Cook Inlet belugas to support Alaska Native nutritional and cultural needs.”
NOAA Fisheries has identified a preferred alternative in the DSEIS which would--if the population recovered sufficiently--establish a harvest level under a five-year co-management agreement. The agreement would be based on the previous five-year average abundance estimate and the ten-year population growth rate.
All proposed alternatives include restrictions to decrease harvest levels to compensate for unusual mortality, such as a mass stranding of whales.
The beluga hunt in Cook Inlet near Anchorage has been restricted since 1999, allowing a subsistence harvest of zero to two whales a year through co-management agreements between NOAA Fisheries and the Cook Inlet Marine Mammal Council. From 1999 through 2007, Alaska Native hunters took a total of five beluga whales for subsistence in the inlet.
In 2007, NOAA Fisheries proposed that the Cook Inlet beluga whale population be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The agency is scheduled to make a decision on the listing in 2008. The Cook Inlet beluga population is currently listed as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
NOAA Fisheries scientists and managers have focused on the Cook Inlet belugas for sometime, working on annual population surveys and abundance estimates, co-management agreements, two comprehensive status reviews, tissue sample collections, conservation planning, and responses to stranded beluga whales.
The DSEIS is available electronically at: http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/protectedresources/whales/beluga.htm. Comments can be submitted at public meetings, electronically by e-mail or through regular mail.
Public hearings on the DSEIS are scheduled in:
- Anchorage, Alaska — January 29, 2008, from 4 to 7 pm. at the Loussac Public Library, Wilda Marston Room, 3600 Denali Street.
- Soldotna, Alaska — January 30, 2008, from 4 to 7 pm. at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly chambers, 144 North Binkley Street.
E-mail comments should be sent to CIB-Harvest-SEIS@noaa.gov and include the following document identifier in the comment subject line: Cook Inlet Beluga Harvest DSEIS.
Comments may be sent by regular mail to: James W. Balsiger, Ph.D; Attn: Ellen Sebastian; National Marine Fisheries Service; 709 W 9th Street; P.O. Box 21688; Juneau, AK 99802-1668
Further information or a copy of the DSEIS in paper or CD format may be requested by mail from: Barbara Mahoney; National Marine Fisheries Service; 222 West 7th Ave #43; Anchorage, AK 99513 or by calling her at 907-271-3448.
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service) is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation’s living marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement, and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine species and their habitat. To learn more about NOAA Fisheries in Alaska, please visit our websites at: alaskafisheries.noaa.gov or www.afsc.noaa.gov.