June 16, 2018 by Dan Joling
Beluga whales in Alaska's Cook
Inlet may have changed their diet over five decades from saltwater prey to fish
and crustaceans influenced by freshwater, according to a study by University of
Alaska Fairbanks researchers.
An analysis of isotopes in beluga bone and
teeth showed belugas formerly fed on prey that had little contact with
freshwater. More recent generations of belugas fed in areas where rivers pour
freshwater into ocean habitats.
New information on Cook Inlet
belugas is important because the species is endangered and its numbers have not
increased despite hunting restrictions and other protections. Mark Nelson, a
wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the lead
author of the study, called it a little piece of that puzzle.
"If there's something we can
do to help them recover, we might start to know what that might be," he
said in a phone interview from Fairbanks.
A population of 1,300 belugas in
Cook Inlet dwindled steadily through the 1980s and early 1990s. Alaska Natives
harvested nearly half the remaining 650 whales between 1994 and 1998.
Subsistence hunting ended in 1999 but the population remains at only about 340
animals.
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