Alaska whalers to cancel beluga hunt
By JEANNETTE J. LEE, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 17, 5:55 PM ET
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - 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.
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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.
With the hunt canceled, residents of Tyonek, an Athabascan Indian village of
200, will need to harvest more salmon, gather more clams and stock up on more
store-bought food for the winter. But village council President Peter Merryman,
68, said he has witnessed the thinning of the pods for years and has no
problems with holding off for another season.
"We understand what's going on. We know the population is declining so we are
trying our best to get it back up again," Merryman said. "It's our way to help
them out."
Merryman started hunting the whales as a teenager in the 1950s when roughly
2,000 or more belugas lived in the inlet. The latest estimate by the fisheries
service puts the population at 300.
Tyonek is just 43 miles southwest of Anchorage but can be reached only by
boat or plane. Besides whale, villagers rely on subsistence foods such as
salmon, moose and waterfowl. When a whale is caught, the whole village pitches
in to butcher and can the meat and blubber for winter, Merryman said. The dried
meat, or "beluga jerky," dipped in oil from the animals, is a popular snack.
During the summer, hunters usually search for pods at the mouths of rivers,
where whales feed on spawning red and silver salmon.
"There's not that many out there like there used to be," said Merryman. "We
have to spend more time out there waiting for them to come in."
The population was declared depleted in 2000 under the Marine Mammal
Protection Act. Scientists can only guess at the reasons for the whales'
scarcity, with pollution and local industry being possible factors, Mahoney
said.
The inlet is abuzz with oil and gas drilling, commercial fishing operations
and ships carrying most of state's imports to Anchorage, its most populous
city. Pollution sources include storm water and sewage runoff from Anchorage
and natural seeps of coal and oil.
"Cook Inlet's a busy place. There could be a number of reasons, but none we
can directly state as the cause," said Mahoney, who has studied Cook Inlet
belugas since 1991.
She added that predators, including killer whales and possibly sharks, could
also be reasons for the population wane.
Cook Inlet belugas are one of five genetically and geographically distinct
populations living along the perimeter of Alaska. Others are found in the more
remote waters of Bristol Bay, the eastern Bering Sea, the eastern Chukchi Sea
and the Beaufort Sea, which is north of Alaska and Canada.
The other groups are much healthier, with a total population estimate between
35,000 and 40,000 animals.
Mahoney said scientists hope to collect more information about the whales'
reproductive habits, ages and diet, as well as local contaminant and underwater
noise levels.
Merryman seems resigned when he talks about the vanishing whales. He said
it's because other animals that his people once depended on for food, such as
snowshoe hares and even salmon, are also less plentiful than before. "We
always look forward to going out and getting a beluga, but I think Mother
Nature takes her course," he said. "Just like everything else, they disappear."
___ On the Net: National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Region:
http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/ protectedresources/whales/beluga.htm
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