On July 30, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled against Alaska Natives and environmentalists seeking protection for the beluga whale under the Alaska Endangered Species Act. The ruling in the case, Alaska Ctr. for the Env't vs. Rue (the Alaska Center for the Environment and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance vs. Frank Rue, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the State of Alaska), upholds a lower court decision that the local population of beluga whales, though diminished and genetically isolated, does not qualify as a distinct species or subspecies under state law.
The local belugas suffered a population crash in the 1990s, reducing their population from 1,300 to between 350 and 400. They were listed as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 2000, and federal biologists asserted that the problem was overharvesting by Alaska Natives, who use the belugas as a subsistence food. The listing restricted Alaska Natives to harvesting only one or two whales per year, but the regulations have not led to any improvements. Alaska Natives refrained from the harvest in 2004, saying that too many whales had been dying of apparently natural causes. Environmentalists and Natives insist that other factors, such as pollution, fishing, and noise, should be further studied and taken into account as causes of the shrinking population.
