Beluga dead - Juvenile whale entangled in educational fishery net ? Alaska

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

[Cook Inlet beluga whale population survey isn’t going to be conducted until early June, there is one recently confirmed change to the 2011 population number, when a subadult beluga was caught in the Kenaitze Indian Tribe’s educational fishery set gillnet near the mouth of the Kenai River on May 7.

     Beluga whale, Cook Inlet, showing Knik and Turnagain Arms

"We’re not exactly sure what happened, if the beluga was dead and got caught. It looks like it was dead and just it rolled up into the net with the surf action,]

[cause of death wasn’t immediately clear. Representatives from the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward collected the whale May 8 and performed an autopsy.]

[The whale was a male, 8 to 9 feet long, meaning it was a few years old and not yet full-grown. Lindgren said the educational fishery crew had not noticed...]

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