Strike one for the belugas
Congratulations to the US federal judge who, for the second time in less than six months, has thrown out a lawsuit by the Alaskan State challenging an endangered species listing, this time involving Cook Inlet's beluga whales.
Alaskan state officials were reported to have been concerned that recovery efforts for belugas could threaten oil and gas development and shipping in the Inlet.
It appears that Escopeta Oil Co., which recently announced a major gas discovery in Cook Inlet, had intervened in the lawsuit on the side of the state against the US Government's listing of the belugas as endangered
"We maintain that the listing process was defective because it did not sufficiently involve the state or consider the conservation measures already in place to protect Cook Inlet belugas," a representative of the state said.
But in his ruling, the federal judge took note of the state's conservation measures and rejected them as inadequate.
"Ultimately, whatever conservation efforts were already being made by the state ... clearly had not demonstrated a degree of effectiveness sufficient to alleviate concern over the small population size in Cook Inlet, since the population had shown no signs of recovery and was indeed continuing to decline," the judge wrote in his decision.
So from everyone at WDCS congratulations to all those who campaigned to maintain the protected status of the belugas and congratulations to the US Government for getting this one right
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