Bush administration to Gov. Palin: Beluga whale in Alaska is endangered

Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin has questioned scientific evidence that the beluga whale population in the waters near Anchorage is declining. In fact last summer she urged the federal government not to list the whale as endangered, citing concerns of what a listing might do to the Cook Inlet economy.

But today the U.S. Government replied with a decisive counter, declaring the beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet an endangered species. The findings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration trigger a rigorous regimen to protect the whales, dwindled to an estimated 375 from their 1995 high of 653.

The decision by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service could trump a decision by the U.S. Interior Department to make oil leases available on Cook Inlet, where energy analysts see an estimated $1.38 billion worth of resources.

"In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not recovering," said James Balsiger, NOAA's acting assistant administrator. The agency added that oil and gas exploration had hindered the whale's existence.

As the Associated Press noted, this is the second run-in Palin has had with the Bush administration over the Endangered Species Act. Earlier, the governor, now Republican vice presidential candidate, had asked the courts to overturn an Interior Department decision declaring polar bears threatened.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Ted S. Warren / Associated Press

Comments

[hottopics]

John McCain what in the world were you thinking? I hate the fact that I even know of her. I say we take her off the endangered list and lock her up in a mental ward.

[JC]

Let's face up to the fact that McCain and the GOP made her the VP running mate as a gimmick. She's a buffoon and is not qualified to be VP by any means.

[lvcrxrcr]

You guys need to understand that things can get on he endangered species list if there aren't many in ONE PARTICULAR AREA. That does not mean the species as a whole is endangered, it means that they aren't surviving well in a certain area. With that in mind, research before you comment about anything. If you do not have the knowledge, it just makes you look stupid.

[lucca]

Sarah Palin is a joke!

She's the most inexperienced, uneducated, corrupt and right wing candidate that John McCain could have chosen. What was he thinking?????

All that Sarah Palin cares about is money, oil and power.

We don't need another 4 years of Bush in the White House!!!

[BT]

lvcrxrcr - Do you have research that you could share with NOAA scientists that would invalidate their findings? If so, please share. If not, then you have just proclaimed your own ignorance.

[charles armstrong]

Palin is just a horrible idiotic person. She looks one way and that way only. She doesn't have an open mind. She doesn't care for anyone that doesn't agree with her, and anything that's not human.

[Mk]

Here are some minor details you missed (due to your remote location no doubt) take the time to do the math, and it sounds more like a recovery at a brief demographic plateau than a decline [Souurce: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]:

The inlet’s beluga population fell from about 650 in 1994 to about half that in 1998, almost certainly due to the high number of whales taken by Alaska Native subsistence hunters from Anchorage. The federal government, urged by the state, used its authority to mostly stop the hunting in 1999. Since then, only five whales have been killed by hunters, and whalers took none in the past two years.

After the overhunting ended, the whale population seemed not to grow for a few years and perhaps even continued to decline. The low estimate was 278 in 2005. But then the population seemed to recover. By 2007, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the arm of NOAA responsible for beluga management, estimated the population had grown to 375, a 35 percent increase from two years prior.

But the growth seemed to stall this year. The service estimated the population at 375 again this summer.

State officials made good arguments against a premature listing. Beluga whales do not reach reproductive age until they are about 5 years old, and then females only bear one calf every three years. So the population would not have grown significantly for several years after hunting stopped; the increase found in 2007 reflected the modest growth state biologists had expected.

The flat number of whales this summer was disappointing, but one level year hardly amounts to a reversal of the upward trend. Some yearly variation in the count also can be expected due to the difficulty in spotting whales in the inlet’s murky waters. Young whales are similar in color to those waters and don’t fully whiten until they are about 5 years old.

[Mk]

Here are some minor details you missed (due to your remote location no doubt) take the time to do the math, and it sounds more like a recovery at a brief demographic plateau than a decline [Souurce: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]:

The inlet’s beluga population fell from about 650 in 1994 to about half that in 1998, almost certainly due to the high number of whales taken by Alaska Native subsistence hunters from Anchorage. The federal government, urged by the state, used its authority to mostly stop the hunting in 1999. Since then, only five whales have been killed by hunters, and whalers took none in the past two years.

After the overhunting ended, the whale population seemed not to grow for a few years and perhaps even continued to decline. The low estimate was 278 in 2005. But then the population seemed to recover. By 2007, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the arm of NOAA responsible for beluga management, estimated the population had grown to 375, a 35 percent increase from two years prior.

But the growth seemed to stall this year. The service estimated the population at 375 again this summer.

State officials made good arguments against a premature listing. Beluga whales do not reach reproductive age until they are about 5 years old, and then females only bear one calf every three years. So the population would not have grown significantly for several years after hunting stopped; the increase found in 2007 reflected the modest growth state biologists had expected.

The flat number of whales this summer was disappointing, but one level year hardly amounts to a reversal of the upward trend. Some yearly variation in the count also can be expected due to the difficulty in spotting whales in the inlet’s murky waters. Young whales are similar in color to those waters and don’t fully whiten until they are about 5 years old.

[Buddesatva]

The single most dissappointing and disheartening thing about Palin is the number of people who think she is not an idiot. Belugas notwithstanding, she has a constituency. Freedom of speech is now interpreted as freedom to be intentionally ignorant, otherwise known as stupid. They are convinced that Jesus will show up any day now, really any day. The destruction of the environment, the economy, genocide, these things are of no consequence because they actually think that the end of days is upon us and heck why worry about a couple of fish.