Cook Inlet beluga whales were and are cherished by Alaskans and visitors from all over the world. Now the population, which was more than 1,000 in the 1970s, has fallen to 279.
Everyone keeps “wondering” why the Cook Inlet beluga population is declining. Here is a quote from PBS: “The Cook Inlet beluga population dwindled steadily through the 1980s and early ‘90s (due to subsistence hunting.) The decline accelerated between 1994 and 1998, when Alaska Natives harvested nearly half the remaining 650 whales in only four years. Subsistence hunting ended in 1999.”
The largest cause of the decline of Cook Inlet belugas was hunting by Alaska Native people. This decline accelerated between 1994 and 1998, when Alaska Natives killed between 40 and 70 whales per year (and perhaps more) for four years.
Everyone says they are “wondering” and “can’t figure out why” the Cook Inlet belugas declined and why their population has not rebounded. It’s called loss of genetic diversity. When a population of animals falls below a certain number, that population loses genetic diversity. Low genetic diversity means that there is a limited variety of alleles for genes within that species and so there are not many genetic differences between individual members of the population. Species with low genetic diversity are less able to genetically adapt to environmental and other changes and to fight off pathogens. Low genetic diversity threatens the survival of a species and usually results in extinction.
Subsistence hunting of Cook Inlet beluga whales should have ceased when the population got below 1,000 or even before. So why doesn’t someone just say it? The decline and the inability of the Cook Inlet beluga population to rebound was primarily caused by overhunting.
— Michelle Bittner
Anchorage
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