What’s the biggest threat to beluga whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet? Two words: Sarah Palin. Belugas already have a lot stacked against them. Cloudy water in the summer forces them to rely heavily on echolocation to get around, and they must venture into dangerously shallow waters to find food. Palin, who is already infamous for her total disregard for animal lives, is filing suit to prevent the federal government from protecting the whales.
Her argument? “Alaska is already doing enough for whales”.
From Salon:
Palin’s chief of staff published an Op-Ed in the Anchorage Daily News on Jan. 28 titled “Protection Requirements for Cook Inlet Belugas Are Silly.”
While there are five stocks of beluga whales in waters near Alaska, the ones in Cook Inlet are isolated and genetically distinct from their cousins. That population has declined dramatically since the 1980s, from over 1,000 to about 375 now. More than 300 whales perished in one four-year stretch (1994 to 1998) alone, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Marine mammal biologists and conservationists were hopeful that sharply limiting subsistence hunting of the whales by native Alaskans would see the whales bounce back. But despite only five whales being killed by hunting since 1999, when new regulations went into effect, the whales have not rebounded.
Even the Bush administration took note of the Cook Inlet belugas’ decline, after being pressured by environmental groups. In October 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced the listing of the Cook Inlet population of beluga whales as a full-fledged endangered species. Yes, the Bush administration, infamous for its disdain for science when it came to protecting endangered critters, saw fit to offer protections to the belugas living in Cook Inlet. But not the Palin administration.
“It’s hard to imagine that anyone could be more anti-environmental than Bush, but Palin is Exhibit A,” says Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Here we had the most anti-environmental administration in U.S. history, and Palin still feels compelled to sue over one of the few environmentally positive things to come out of that administration.”
Marine mammal biologists don’t yet know what’s preventing the beluga whale population from making a comeback, but they do know that the health of the species could have implications for the rest of the ecosystem they inhabit.
Designating the beluga whales as endangered will also turn Cook Inlet into a ‘critical habitat’ for the whales, which is exactly why Palin’s administration is fighting the measure. They’re afraid that such protected status will hamper the “unfettered industrial activity” going on in the inlet – including the dumping of toxic waste by the oil industry. It could also affect plans to expand the port of Anchorage and build the Knik Arm Bridge – famously known as “the bridge to nowhere” – and curtail oil and natural gas drilling.
This is the same woman who advocates shooting wolves from helicopters and has an office full of dead animal trophies and a pile of caribou antlers sitting outside her house. Her antipathy toward animals and the environment knows no bounds. So, none of this is too surprising. Luckily, advocates of protecting the whales are confident that the Obama administration will defend the beluga listing from Palin’s lawsuit.
Link [Salon.com]
