A
rare group of beluga whales in Alaska saw a slight increase in numbers last
year, a survey showed. Scientists estimated that the population of Cook Inlet
belugas stood at 312 in 2012, compared with a record low 278 in 2011, officials
with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced.
This
small uptick is not scientifically significant, researchers noted. Long-term
trends have shown Cook Inlet beluga
whales in decline over the past two decades. According to NOAA
estimates, the population may once have been as big as 1,300 but it shrank
dramatically during the 1990s and has continued to fall.
The
whales' home, Cook Inlet, stretches some 180 miles (290 km) from the Gulf of
Alaska to Anchorage. Scientists conducting the 2012 survey were surprised to
see a group of the endangered population swimming just offshore of West
Foreland swimming north into upper part of the inlet.
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