More Baby Belugas to Come?

By: Anne Consroe

This past weekend, the Bush administration added the beluga whale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet to the endangered species list. This action will now enable the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [http://www.noaa.gov] to start impressive research to examine why the species is in such steep decline and whether any human activities in the area should or could be modified to protect the beluga’s habitat.

The Cook Inlet beluga population was about 1,300 in the 1970s; it is around 375 today. The U.S. government limited whale hunting to five whales between 1999 and 2006, but the population has continued to decline about 1.5 percent per year. Scientists hypothesize many factors could be preventing a stronger recovery: predators (such as killer whales), underwater noise, water contamination, or a significant decrease in salmon (imperative in a beluga’s diet).

Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity [http://www.biologicaldiversity.org], believes the listing clears up political quarrels and finally enables preservation efforts to begin.

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http://www.conbio.org/Jobs

http://www.earthworks-jobs.com/ecology.htm


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http://www.ecojobs.com

http://www.ecoemploy.com/jobs


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