STOCK STATUS

The Cook Inlet beluga whale stock declined dramatically between 1994 and 1998. Aerial survey results indicate that the 1998 Cook Inlet beluga abundance estimate (n = 347 whales) represents a decline of 47 percent from the 1994 estimate (n = 653 whales). In response to this significant decline, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published a proposed rule on October 19, 1999 (64 FR 56298) to designate the Cook Inlet beluga stock as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The final depleted designation was published on May 31, 2000 (65 FR 34590).

Accordingly, NMFS and local tribes have acted in concert to limit the number of whales harvested in annual subsistence hunts. Pursuant to Pub. L. 106-31 and 106-553, NMFS and ANOs established harvest levels and allocated harvest through a 2000 co-management agreement. No belugas were harvested in 2000. Following the depleted determination, NMFS proposed regulations on October 4, 2000 (65 FR 59164), limiting the harvest of beluga whales in Cook Inlet. Following the formal hearing in December 2000, NMFS and ANOs negotiated annual agreements to allocate the harvest of Cook Inlet beluga whales according to a formula that was stipulated by the parties and subsequently recommended by the court at the hearing for the period 2001 through 2004.

In December 2007, NMFS published the CI beluga whale subsistence harvest draft Supplemental EIS to establish a long-term subsistence harvest plan predicated on continuing assessments of the population and estimated to allow the stock to recover to its optimum sustainable population, while permitting Alaska Natives to continue subsistence harvests that support their traditional cultural and nutritional needs without preventing or significantly delaying the stock’s recovery.

Although subsistence hunting has been regulated since 1999, the CI beluga population has not shown a significant increase and instead has declined with an annual average of 2.7 percent annual since 1999. The anual abundance estimates have varied with the most recent of 278 in 2005, 302 in 2006, and 375 belugas in 2007. Several more years of estimates are necessary to determine if this apparant trend represents an increasing population.

• Status Review and Extinction Risk Assessment of Cook Inlet Belugas, April 2008  
• Status Review and Extinction Assessment of Cook Inlet Belugas, November 2006
• 71 FR 25150, April 28, 2006. Notice of reopening of time period for submitting information for the status review of Cook Inlet Beluga Whales.
• Notification to public of the extension of the comment period on the status review, April 21, 2006
• Trustees for Alaska petition to list the Cook Inlet beluga whales as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, April 20, 2006.
• 71 FR 14836, March 24, 2006. Notice of request for information for NMFS' status review of the Cook Inlet beluga whale to determine if this group of beluga whales should be listed as an endangered or threatened species.

• Judge rules in favor of depleted designation, August 20, 2001
  
• Listing the Cook Inlet Beluga whales under the ESA not warranted, June 22, 2000
  
• FR 65 34590, May 31, 2000. Designation of the Cook Inlet stock of beluga whales as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Effective June 30, 2000
  
• 56 FR 26797, June 11, 1991. Listed as a candidate
  
• 53 FR 33516, August 31, 1988. Listed as candidate for possible addition to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife
  
• Beluga Stock Assessments (5 Alaska stocks)