Attorney hired for beluga issue

Sullivan said attorney William Stelle is a former federal fisheries official and an expert in the Endangered Species Act. His online resume says he worked for six years as northwest regional director for the National Marine Fisheries Service and managed the endangered species listings of salmon stocks from California to Canada.

Federal scientists say Cook Inlet's belugas are a genetically distinct species that doesn't intermingle with other beluga populations in Alaska. The Inlet's whales were estimated to number about 1,300 in the early 1980s, but the population plummeted to around 350 in the late 1990s.

Scientists blamed the drop on subsistence hunts, but Native hunters voluntarily curtailed their harvests in 1999 and the population hasn't rebounded as biologists had hoped. The fisheries service listed the whales as endangered in 2008, and a few weeks ago proposed designating more than 3,000 square miles of Cook Inlet as critical habitat for the whales. That area would comprise all of upper Cook Inlet, the coastal areas of western Cook Inlet and most of Kachemak Bay.

Sullivan announced Stelle's hiring during a noon luncheon with Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey and Talis Colberg, mayor of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. All three mayors said the critical habitat designation could have big negative effects on government projects and activities in and near the Inlet, as well as fisheries and oil and gas development. They said they want to present a united front to oppose it and limit its effects.

Sullivan and Carey, especially, said they want the state to pay for what Sullivan estimated would be "several millions of dollars" of new science research on the whales. That work couldn't be done in time to help much with the debate over what areas should be designated critical habitat, but would be useful in future lawsuits, Sullivan acknowledged.

Supporters of the designation say it wouldn't cripple development in Cook Inlet, but would require it to be done more responsibly. Science studies and monitoring already have shown the Inlet's belugas need the endangered species listing and its protection, they say.

The mayor's office said Stelle's firm, K&L Gates, has an Anchorage office and is already retained under a $50,000 contract with the city's legal department. The cost of paying for Stelle's time under that contract likely will be shared by city agencies most likely to be affected by the designation, including the Port of Anchorage, the water and wastewater utility, solid waste services and project management and engineering, Sullivan's aides said.