Maktauq Anyone: Katharine Mieszkowski of Salon, Throws Harpoons at Palin and Misses

It's a Kwazy Life ^ | Sunday, February 22, 2009 | Tom Lamb

[earmarksrus]

Nanook of the North, Katharine Mieszkowski, goes Whalin' for Palin by throwing harpoons at Palin's stance on beluga whales that swim up the Cook Inlet.

Nanook Mieskowski, waxes poetic:

But for all the amazing ways that the Cook Inlet belugas cope with their stark environment, there's one imminent threat for which they have no adaptation: Gov. Sarah Palin.

Let's see, the beluga whales have one imminent threat that they can't adapt to and that be Gov. Sarah Palin.

A quick fact check at google: Scientists catalog Cook Inlet belugas

Estimates put the Cook Inlet beluga population at about 375, compared with 1,300 animals in 1979.

No one knows exactly what is hurting the whales. Subsistence hunters once took large numbers. The hunts, however, have been regulated since 1999 and only five whales have been legally harvested since then. There is now a moratorium on hunts, at least through 2012.

State officials are considering a lawsuit over the listing. They say the federal government should have waited longer before declaring belugas endangered.

In the past four years, the number of Cook Inlet belugas has grown by about 100, according to Doug Vincent-Lang, the state's endangered species coordinator. Vincent-Lang attended the symposium but didn't give a presentation.

The population counts are just estimates and the trend is downward for the animals, said Brad Smith of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Possible threats to the whales include pollution, coastal development, strandings, predation and poaching, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

(emphasis added)

Nowhere does the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration list Gov. Sarah Palin as a threat.....

Nannok of the North, Mieszkowski makes another claim:

More than 300 whales perished in one four-year stretch (1994 to 1998) alone, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Marine mammal biologists and conservationists were hopeful that sharply limiting subsistence hunting of the whales by native Alaskans would see the whales bounce back. But despite only five whales being killed by hunting since 1999, when new regulations went into effect, the whales have not rebounded.

Let's see, "when new regulations went into effect, the whales have not rebounded."

Now according to Doug Vincent-Lang, belugas have grown by 100 in the past fours years.

But federal officials have their figures.

That delay gave federal biologists another season to conduct aerial surveys, which confirmed that the population remained at 375 and showed no sign of increase. Estimates have ranged from a high of 653 belugas in 1994 to a low of 278 in 2005.

Whale biologists have not determined why the population has not rebounded since a federal plan curtailed the beluga hunt by Alaskan native tribes in 1999, said Barbara Mahoney, a fisheries service biologist in Anchorage. Subsistence hunters have only taken five Cook Inlet whales since 1999 and none in the last two years.

No hunting will be permitted through 2012, a ban which will be extended if the population falls below 350 whales, she said.

Federal biologist have confirmed 375. In 2005 there were an estimated 278 belugas. That is an increase of about one hundred. How estimates are conducted have been fairly consistent.

Doug Vincent-Lang's statement on an increase of 100 since 2005 is correct.

However, Nanook of the North, Mieszkowski has told a Great White Lie in the Great Land. She said they have not rebounded.

As for the rest of the article? Fish bait for more british cod fillet....

[Eska]

Those belugas swim up the Yukon a long ways too. They have been seen over 1000 miles up from the ocean. We live by Canadian border and they have been seen nx village down from us.

One thing for sure, if anybody here seen any, the entire place would turn out with nets, spears, and guns to get as many as they could; no joke.

[Plumberman27]

We from the mainland at least have donated one beluga. We sent Hillary!

[top 2 toe red]

One thing for sure, if anybody here seen any, the entire place would turn out with nets, spears, and guns to get as many as they could; no joke.

Pitiful.

[sinanju]

Perhaps the confusing, fluctuating numbers are because the Cook Inlet population is NOT separate and distinct? Not yet another endangered sub-sub-subspecies?

Cook Inlet does seem like a strange place for them, I got the impression they were High Arctic specialists, that they lived north of the Killer Whale’s range. I knew that they were evolved to operate in shallow waters and at the edge of the floe ice. They have the thickest, toughest skin in all whaledom and can, when stranded by tides, lie comfortably for hours high and dry in the blazing sun. I believe their lack of a dorsal fin combined with the tough hide, enables them to hunt under the sea ice.

But there’s certainly no doubt that this familiar endangered species act two-step is all about locking up Cook Inlet from evil drilling and development.