A leader has a dangerous obsession with a white whale… Facts are irrelevant. Costs to human life are ignored.

The Captain? Not Ahab – it’s NOAA…

Yes, folks, last month, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) announced that it would set aside 3000 square miles of Cook Inlet as “critical habitat” for Beluga whales.

Call me concerned...

But, before we get into the many ramifications of critical habitat designation (CHD), a little background information is in order.

In the last 30 years, the number of beluga whales in Cook Inlet has drastically declined. In 1979, 1300 belugas inhabited Cook Inlet. In 1995, there were 653 belugas.

Since 1999, the numbers have hovered between 278 (2005) and 435 (2000).

What brought about the decline? Well, it is widely accepted that hunting killed most of the whales. In the 1990s, belugas were prey to unrestricted subsistence hunting.

The hunts stopped in 1999.

Guess what? When the shooting stopped -- so too did the precipitous drop in numbers. For the past 10 years Cook Inlet’s Beluga numbers have remained steady, their numbers averaging just over 300.

This number has not been good enough for the feds. No, they want quick results, replete with booming beluga numbers

However, a sharp increase in beluga numbers is impossible. Belugas carry their babies for 14-15 months (no one knows for certain). The young are with the mother for up to two years. Sexual maturation then takes between 4 and 7 years.

With such a slow reproductive cycle, it will take a long time for the Cook Inlet belugas to repopulate…

It should also be noted that beluga whales are not endangered. There are hundreds of thousands of belugas worldwide.

Scientists, however, claim that the Cook Inlet beluga population is a genetically unique population because Cook Inlet is isolated from arctic waters.

Perhaps they are right.

But where scientists are nearly certain about the beluga’s genetics, they are completely uncertain about the rest of the beluga’s life.

In their petition to place the Cook Inlet beluga on the endangered species list, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) begged ignorance -- again and again.

Here are a couple gems :

“Very little research has been carried out to delineate the food habits of Cook Inlet beluga whales.”

“In Cook Inlet, the calving of beluga whales has not been well documented.”

“Very little is presently known about any of the reproductive parameters for the Cook Inlet beluga stock.”

Despite this appalling lack of data, NOAA placed the Cook Inlet beluga on the endangered species list.

And now, cloaked in the exact same ignorance, NOAA has designated “critical habitat”– the code red of environmentalism.

CHD is serious. It puts a massive invisible fence around “the geographical area occupied by the species.” The feds are then given the power to “require special management considerations or protections” for the whales.

In other words, the feds can slow or completely stop any development in Cook Inlet.

NOAA, of course, claims that any action taken in Cook Inlet will be negligible (though they neglected to complete an Economic Impact Study for the Cook Inlet CHD…). NOAA states that the only “threats” to the belugas will be:

“* Development within and along upper Cook Inlet;
*Continued oil and gas exploration, development, and production…
*Tidal power development;
*Commercial, recreational, personal use, and subsistence fishing;
*Military activities;
*Indigenous peoples’ use;
*Recreation and tourism;
*Disease or predation;
*Inadequate existing regulatory mechanisms…”

No big deal, really. The only “threats” to belugas are -- well, everything. Absolutely everything.

Armed with a CHD, the feds can shut down any perceived “threat.” This means that: our economy (oil, gas, the Anchorage and Mat-Su ports, commerce and tourism); electricity (natural gas); energy future (tidal power); national defense (military activities); fishing; and recreation will all be at the mercy of NOAA bureaucrats.

Goody.

But it gets worse… After Cook Inlet is designated as CH, environmental groups can -- and will -- sue oil and gas companies, and/or the ports of Anchorage and Mat-Su. They will claim that these groups are hurting the fish -- which feed the belugas.

At that point, we’re one verdict away from an economic disaster.

This strategy has worked before. In the 1990s, the Pacific Northwest timber industry was destroyed because of lawsuits concerning critical habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl.

That tactic will be tried again…

Folks, our future is at stake. A Critical Habitat Designation has the potential to devastate Alaska. I urge you to write NOAA. Tell them to research more about the belugas; to conduct a full Economic Impact Study; to assume less...

Tell them that Cook Inlet must not shackled by a hunch.

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Comments on the proposed critical habitat area must be received by Jan. 31, 2010. Send comments to www.regulations.gov