Alaska’s largest one-day marine mammal educational event to celebrate 50th anniversary of Endangered Species Act. NOAA Fisheries and partners invite the public to celebrate the 5th Annual Belugas Count! and the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act on Saturday, September 23. Belugas Count! is a free, family-friendly educational celebration of the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale. These white […]
There was a time when Christine Gabriele wondered if she’d ever see one of her favorite creatures again. That 42-year-old female humpback whale — known as whale #219 to Gabriele and other biologists at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve — had been missing from her favorite Icy Strait herring-fishing grounds in Alaska. No one […]
NOAA Fisheries whale experts were on the water near Juneau most of Monday, July 17, disentangling a well-known humpback whale calf from a crab pot line. Biologist John Moran, Auke Bay Laboratories, discovered the entanglement while he was out on the water conducting research Monday morning. Marine mammal experts Suzie Teerlink and David Gann from the NOAA […]
New survey estimate and recent trend data suggest the population may be stable and possibly increasing slightly. This month, NOAA Fisheries announced an updated abundance estimate for endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales. Scientists estimated that the population size is between 290 and 386, with a median best estimate of 331. In 2018, scientists estimated that the […]