One day after a federal judge suspended an Interior Department oil lease sale off the coast of Alaska over potential impacts on endangered beluga whales, environmentalists made a legal appeal to NOAA Fisheries to protect the whales in their critical habitat from industrial noise and development.
The emergency petition filed Thursday by the Center for Biological Diversity and Cook Inletkeeper called on Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, whose department oversees NOAA Fisheries, to establish a formal protection zone in the Tuxedni Bay about 60 miles south of Kenai.
According to the petition, the bay area is “a unique refuge from incessant anthropogenic noise found nearly everywhere else in Cook Inlet” and “a key foraging location, especially in the fall, winter, and spring,” for beluga whales.
The proposed protection zone would include the Cook Inlet in marine waters between two miles south of the Johnson River delta to two miles north of the Crescent River delta, including the upper tidal reach of the Tuxedni River. The area is already designated as critical habitat for the whales.
