Save the whales?
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January 21, 2010 • Zachary Layton, Guest Contributor
Filed under 2009-2010
Turning on the news today, you might not hear about what’s going on in Cook Inlet, but believe me, you should. Something that could affect all Alaskans is in the works. What is this? The attempt to save beluga whales. Now, this doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, or something that could have much argument about it, but let me expand on the main point.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is planning on converting two areas located in Cook Inlet into areas deemed as “critical habitat.” These areas total about 3,016 square miles. NMFS believes that the Cook Inlet specific beluga whales should have a human intervention, due to their region exclusivity and their rapidly declining numbers. This seems like a worthy cause, until you consider the effect it will have on Alaskans.
If Cook Inlet is turned into critical habitat, Alaskans will be seeing plenty of additions to our taxes, maybe even up to the thousands. The reason why it will cost so much is that the John M. Asplund Wastewater Treatment Facility at Point Woronzof has been operating with outdated machinery and under regulations. Pumping 32 million gallons of sewage into Cook Inlet every day, you could imagine the fit environmentalists are having. The money will mainly go into fixing and even replacing some of the machinery and processes, and hopefully making a cleaner waste to be produced.
Now, this seems like a good reason behind the decline in the Beluga whales’ population, and that these measures should of course be taken, if it was the cause of their decline in numbers. No studies have been put forth to show that any direct human or creature cause is to blame for the decrease in Beluga population. The NMFS justifies the critical habitat by stating that any possible factor in the decrease that is caused by human interaction must be removed, so that they can then derive where the problem is coming from.
This preposition will hurt many commercial fishermen, who will be unable to fish in the area after it is converted. No traffic will be permitted in the waters without a federal permit, and the rate that these will be given out will be slim. You can imagine just the magnitude of the impact that this is going to have on Alaska, all for what could easily be considered a half-billion dollar science experiment. If you feel the same way, NMFS is accepting comments about differing positions at the following website http://www.regulations.gov or at this fax number: (907)-586-7557.
