[CINC] More on the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Population

[Staci Kaye-Carr]

More on the.....
Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Population Listed As Endangered;
Conservation Groups Applaud National Marine Fisheries Service Decision

  ANCHORAGE, Alaska— Today the National Marine Fisheries Service  
announced its long-awaited decision to list the Cook Inlet beluga  
whale population as "endangered" under the federal Endangered Species  
Act.

The Cook Inlet beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is a genetically  
distinct and geographically isolated population whose numbers have  
plummeted by more than 50 percent in the past decade. The Cook Inlet  
beluga population's status is so perilous that in 2006 the scientific  
experts at the World Conservation Union (IUCN) placed the Cook Inlet  
beluga on its Red List for critically threatened species. The expert  
agency charged by Congress with protecting marine mammals — the U.S.  
Marine Mammal Commission — repeatedly requested that the Fisheries  
Service list the species under the Endangered Species Act.......

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2008/beluga-10-17-2008.html
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