Perched on the rocks at Beluga Point, I scan the waters of Cook
Inlet’s Turnagain Arm looking for any signs of beluga or other marine
mammals. My clipboard with the “Report of
Beluga Sighting!” form is wedged in a crack in the rocks out of the stiff
breeze that moves constantly across the Point’s rock face.
The two-hour session yields negative results. Regardless of the lack of sightings, I practice
observation skills that have been dormant since the end of the official count
last autumn. My partner and I see nary a
beluga or other marine mammal. None-the-less,
upon returning home, I file the report through the on-line link. Even a negative report provides one more piece
data that may help solve the mystery of why the Cook Inlet Distinct Population
Segment (DPS) of beluga whales have not recovered as expected.
On that day, April 29, most of the action centers
near the head of the Arm where the 20-Mile River enters the Inlet. There, the eulachon (aka hooligan, smelt, and
candlefish) ran the gauntlet of marine mammals, birds, and dip netters attracted
by the prospect of a meal to enter the river to spawn. Beluga have been reported and recorded there.
Usually, the arrival of a solitary whale or a pod causes rejoicing
among coastal residents. Summer arrives shortly
after sighting that first fluke or breech. But this year, a sense of unease accompanies
the first sighting. Daily reports bring news of deaths of whales along the
migration routes. Alaska
alone accounted for dozens, although none were Cook Inlet beluga.. On the day I mountain goat into position among
the rock at Beluga Point, the stranding of a young humpback whale farther up
the Arm caused a stir of concern and curiosity.
Scientists took tissue samples for a necropsy, a kind of marine mammal
post mortem. This stranding was one of an
unexpectedly high many during the annual migrations of various . They are all part a government-declared “unusual
mortality event “or “UME” thst focuses expertise and resources on trying to figure identify the cause. In the vernacular
of public administration, any circumstance worthy of attention must be rendered
into an acronym or it may escape notice.
This year, they take inevitable notice, acronym or not.
