Dan Hull, Chairman
Chris Oliver, Executive Director
SUBJECT: Title
Protected Species Report
end
STAFF CONTACT: Steve MacLean
ACTION REQUIRED:recommended action
Review Protected Species Report, action as necessary
BACKGROUND:
Cook Inlet Beluga whales
On December 27 2017, the National Marine Fisheries Service published a Recovery Plan for the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas). There are currently an estimated 340 beluga whales in Cook Inlet. The population was estimated to be approximately 1300 in 1979, and NMFS considers 1300 whales to be carrying capacity for management purposes. NMFS declared the population as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 2000, and endangered under the U.S. ESA in 2008. The population has been in consistent decline of 1.3% per year since at least 1999. Substantial, unregulated subsistence hunting is believed to be responsible for initial declines in the mid-1990s. Since then, cooperative efforts between NMFS and Alaska Native subsistence users have dramatically reduced subsistence hunts, which should have allowed the population to recover if subsistence harvest was the only factor limiting population growth.
The Recovery Plan identifies ten potential threat types to Cook Inlet beluga whales, prioritized as high, medium, and low relative concern. The Recovery Plan identifies recovery actions to focus on threats identified as high or medium relative concern. The Plan also identifies recovery criteria that will allow for downlisting the stock from Endangered to Threatened, and delisting (reclassified as recovered). To be considered for downlisting, the population must:
* Number at least 520 individuals, with at least a 95% probability that most recent 25-year population abundance trend is positive
AND
* The 10 downlisting threats-based criteria are satisfied
To be considered for reclassification, the population must:
* Number at least 780 individuals, with at least a 95% probability that the most rece...
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