One of two beluga whales that were recently spotted floating in Cook Inlet was recovered and brought to the Ship Creek small boat launch on Tuesday, Sept. 29, for a necropsy by Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services to help determine the cause of death. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Federal fisheries researchers are investigating the deaths of two beluga whales in the waters of Cook Inlet near Anchorage this week.
Biologists and pathologists on Tuesday afternoon were examining a dead adult female beluga whale near the mouth of Ship Creek and the Port of Anchorage to determine how it died, said Verena Gill, supervisory biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Alaska Region office.
Officials received reports that the adult female whale and another adult beluga were found floating in the waters of Cook Inlet on Monday, Gill said.
A citizen in their boat towed the female to the Ship Creek small boat launch on Tuesday morning, she said. The beluga had not been dead long, Gill said. The second beluga, she said, was initially discovered beached in a marshy area near Birchwood but was drifting in the water Tuesday afternoon after the tide refloated it.
One of two beluga whales that were recently spotted floating in Cook Inlet was recovered and brought to the Ship Creek small boat launch on Tuesday, Sept. 29, for a necropsy. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Researchers were performing a necropsy on the beluga beached near Ship Creek on Tuesday to determine its cause of death, Gill said. Results could take months, she said.
The whale was nearly 12 feet long, said Natalie Rouse, a biologist with Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services, which is contracted by NOAA to assist with necropsies.
Gill said the scientists were still determining whether there were any signs of physical trauma, like a ship strike, that could’ve contributed to the female beluga’s death.
The whale’s remains will be towed back into Cook Inlet and left to decompose naturally after the necropsy is completed.
Some samples and material from the whale will also be sent to researchers to help them learn more about Cook Inlet’s belugas, Rouse said.
Blubber is removed during a necropsy of one of two beluga whales that were recently spotted floating in Cook Inlet. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Gill said she hopes a citizen will volunteer to tow the second beluga to shore so officials can examine the carcass.
So far this year, officials have received reports of 10 dead Cook Inlet belugas, she said. In a typical year, eight to 15 are reported, Gill said.
Finding two deceased belugas in such a short period isn’t necessarily alarming because the marine mammals concentrate around the mouths of Cook Inlet rivers and streams to feed on silver salmon this time of year, she said.
Belugas and other whales can often be spotted near the mouth of Ship Creek, especially during low tide. The animals are occasionally found dead on local mudflats.
Cook Inlet belugas are listed as federally endangered and considered geographically separate from Alaska’s other four beluga populations. The most recent estimate, from 2019, put their declining population at under 300 animals.
Photojournalist Bill Roth contributed reporting to this story.