Alaska Whalers to Cancel Beluga Hunt

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2007/apr/17/041705600.html

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Fifty years ago, a whale hunter in Cook Inlet could count on spotting the bulbous white heads of a beluga pod after a half hour or less on the water. But with the whales' rapid and mysterious disappearance, local hunters can be out in the swirling currents and swift tides for three times as long before a pod swims into sight.

The population is now so low that Alaska Native whalers, who have chased belugas for generations, agreed Monday to cancel their annual hunt for the third time in nine years at the request of the National Marine Fisheries Service. The agency is expected to decide this week whether to declare the animals endangered.

Scientists once believed that the previously unlimited Native subsistence harvests were to blame for the decline, with an average of 77 whales killed each year between 1995 and 1998. But Cook Inlet belugas continued to die out even after the fisheries service instituted strict hunting limits in 1999, said agency biologist Barbara Mahoney. Since then, a total of five whales have been taken by hunters, who must be Alaska Native.

Under this year's federal quota, hunters would have been allowed a total of two hits on adult male whales using harpoons. The hunt would have started in mid-July after most calves have been born and are swimming with their mothers, making it easier for hunters to differentiate between males and females.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. This is an excellent concession from the Alaskan whalers. IF ONLY we could

even dream of seeing this kind of conscientious action taken by Norway, Iceland, and Japan.

Thanks to jpak.