"Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Research"

NOAA Fisheries formally initiated this Status Review on March 29, 2006. After reviewing the information, NOAA Fisheries determined the petition to list Cook Inlet belugas under the Endangered Species Act may be warranted.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrative Order 216-6 (NAO 216-6) (May 20, 1999) contains criteria for determining the significance of the impacts of a proposed action. In addition, the Council on Environmental Quality regulations at 40 C.F.R. §1508.27 state that the significance of an action should be analyzed both in terms of "context" and "intensity." Each criterion listed below is relevant to making a finding of no significant impact and has been considered individually, as well as in combination with the others. The significance of this action is analyzed based on the NAO 216-6 criteria and CEQ's context and intensity criteria.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has conducted aerial surveys of the beluga population in Cook Inlet, Alaska, each June and/or July since 1993. Results from 1993 to 2000 were published in Rugh et al. (2000a). The current document is a collection of field reports for the subsequent years, from 2001 to 2004.

NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-AFSC-149

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) conducted aerial surveys of the beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) population in Cook Inlet, Alaska, almost monthly between June 2001 and June 2002. The surveys were flown in a twin-engine, high-wing aircraft at an altitude of 244 m (800 ft) and speed of 185 km/hour (100 kt). Tracklines were approximately 1.4 km offshore, and systematic transects were made across the inlet, covering much of upper Cook Inlet. These methods were consistent with NMFS= abundance surveys conducted each June or July since 1993, except that only in June were there multiple surveys (repeat samplings) within a block of days. During the 2001­ 02 monthly surveys, aerial counts of belugas (median counts when more than one observer was counting) generally stayed high from June through October (n = 211 in June, 39 and 152 in July, 205 in August, 185 in September, 162 in October, respectively), but counts dropped from November to April (n = 24 in November, 15 in January, 0 in February, 18 in April, respectively) before rising again the following June (n = 192). Low counts in winter were probably due to ice in the inlet, making it hard to see the white whales. This study provides evidence of the presence of belugas in upper Cook Inlet in nearly every month of the year, but it is not clear what proportion of the population remains in the upper inlet year-round.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Science at the Alaska Pacific University–Anchorage, Alaska.

This poster contains information about the creation of a web-hosted database for Cook Inlet beluga whale stranding and harvest data.

A synthesis of information showing the number and geographical coverage of surveys in which encountered belugas would have been reported. Information includes effort and sighting data from marine mammal research projects in the Gulf of Alaska.

Collaborative report by the U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service and NOAA Fisheries

Survey to assess the impacts of research on of Cook Inlet beluga whales radio-tagged near the Susitna River delta in Alaska.