Beluga Whale Research Paper

The beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is a cetacean inhabiting the marine arctic and is found throughout the arctic seas as well as smaller seas such as the Beaufort Sea, the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea, Cook Inlet, and several other seas (Frost and Suydam, 2010). This species is migratory and will migrate to shallower coastal waters during the summer, but as winter approaches they travel back to the northern icy waters (Goetz et al., 2012). Beluga’s feed on small fish, as well as squid, octopus, snails, and crustaceans. The pack ice makes an ideal habitat for these large, blubbery creatures (Goetz et al., 2012). Their ability to echolocate is also a bonus when trying to maneuver through this hazardous environment.
The beluga whale, as a species, is doing fairly well, however of the many subpopulations, one in particular is critically endangered (Carter and Nielsen, 2010). The beluga whales in Cook Inlet, AK differ from other populations genetically because of their geographic isolation (Frost and Suydam, 2010). The number of beluga individuals in Cook Inlet, AK had declined heavily between 1979 and 2008, going from 1293 individuals to 375 individuals (Carter and Nielsen, 2010). While there is no one factor that can be solely attributed to the severe population
Further enforcement and harsher consequences for disregard of laws that regulate marine mammals as a whole, but more specifically the Cook Inlet stock of beluga whales, is needed. By reducing our impact on the environment, we can nurture rebound rates of marine species and be able to observe them at their original population sizes. If commercially made food stuffs were more easily available in the rural areas along the coasts of Cook Inlet, then the demand for belugas and other marine species would decrease, thus giving them a chance to