Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 1 February 2020
Survey: Alaska's Cook Inlet beluga whales continue decline

By DAN JOLING population has not recov-
Associated Press ered.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) Among the identified po-
— The population of en- tential threats to belugas
dangered beluga whales are catastrophic events,
in Alaska’s Cook Inlet con- such as natural disasters or
tinues to decline, federal oil spills; cumulative effects
marine mammal authorities of multiple stressors; and
announced Tuesday. noise. Disease agents, such
A biennial survey conduct- as blooms of harmful algae,
ed by the fisheries arm of loss of habitat, a reduction
the National Oceanic and in prey and unauthorized
Atmospheric Administra- killing also are threats.
tion estimated the popula- Oil and natural gas extract-
tion of the white whales at ed from Cook Inlet provides
250 to 317, with a median energy for Anchorage and
estimate of 279. other southcentral Alaska
“The population is estimat- locations.
ed to be smaller and de- Kristen Monsell, an attorney
clining more quickly than for the Center for Biological
previously thought,” NOAA In this August 2009, file photo, provided by the Department of Defense, a Cook Inlet beluga whale Diversity, called the survey
Fisheries said in the an- calf, left, and an adult breach near Anchorage, Alaska. “heartbreaking news for
nouncement. Associated Press a species already strug-
The survey is based on data gas is estimated to be only ago said the the carrying early ’90s. The decline ac- gling to survive.” She said
collected by aerial surveys 29% of the range observed capacity for the area was celerated between 1994 it’s more evidence why
in summer 2018. in 1978-79, according to 1,300 animals. and 1998 when Alaska Na- the Trump administration
The survey also document- the survey. Beluga whales feed on tives harvested nearly half authorization of oil and
ed that a contraction has The population estimate salmon, smaller fish, crab, the remaining 650 whales gas activity in Cook Inlet,
persisted of the summer three years ago was about shrimp, squid and clams in only four years. including seismic airgun
range of belugas, the geo- 340 whales. The agency in and in late summer can Subsistence hunting ended blasting, is so reckless.
graphical area where they January 2017 released a be spotted from highways in 1999. Federal officials ini- “These amazing whales al-
live. Since 2008, on aver- Cook Inlet beluga whale leading from Anchorage, tially figured that control- ready face an onslaught
age 81% of the total popu- recovery plan. chasing salmon schooled ling subsistence hunting of noise pollution that’s
lation occupied the Susitna Cook Inlet belugas are one at stream mouths. The would allow the population threatening their existence.
Delta near the north end of of five beluga populations whales turn white as adults to recover. When it did not, If we’re going to save
the inlet in early June dur- in U.S. waters. Cook Inlet and can reach 15 feet (4.6 they declared belugas en- them, our government has
ing the aerial survey period. stretches 180 miles (290 meters) long. dangered in 2008. to stop handing out permits
Before that, about 50 per- kilometers) from Anchor- The Cook Inlet beluga pop- NOAA Fisheries officials in to harass the whales to oil
cent did. age to the Gulf of Alaska. ulation dwindled steadily 2017 acknowledged that and gas companies,” she
The 2009-18 range for belu- NOAA Fisheries three years through the 1980s and they did not know why the said.q
California's monarch butterflies

critically low for 2nd year

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ ed at least modestly, but monarchs generally arrive
Associated Press unfortunately it has not," in California at the begin-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — said Emma Pelton, a mon- ning of November and
The western monarch but- arch conservation expert spread across the country
terfly population wintering with the Xerces Society. once warmer weather ar-
along California's coast re- By comparison, about 4.5 rives in March.
mains critically low for the million monarch butterflies On the eastern side of
second year in a row, a wintered in forested groves the Rocky Mountains, an-
count by an environmental along the California coast other monarch butterfly
group released Thursday in the 1980s. population travels from
showed. Scientists say the butterflies southern Canada and the
The count of the orange- are at critically low levels in northeastern United States
In this July 29, 2019, file photo, a monarch butterfly rests on a
plant at Abbott's Mill Nature Center in Milford, Del. and-black insects by the the Western United States across thousands of miles
Associated Press Xerces Society, a nonprofit due to the destruction of to spend the winter in cen-
environmental organization their milkweed habitat tral Mexico. Mexican offi-
that focuses on the conser- along their migratory route cials said last year the but-
vation of invertebrates, re- as housing expands into terfly population wintering
corded about 29,000 but- their territory and use of there was rebounding but
terflies in its annual survey. pesticides and herbicides they have not yet released
That's not much different increases. this year's count.
than last year's tally, when Western monarch butter- A 2017 study by Washington
an all-time low 27,000 mon- flies head south to Califor- State University researchers
archs were counted. nia each winter, returning found the species likely will
"We had hoped that the to the same sites and even go extinct in the next few
western monarch popula- the same trees where they decades if nothing is done
tion would have rebound- cluster to keep warm. The to save it. q