What Can We Do to Protect Them?

"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 until 2013. This ban will remain in place if the population falls under 350.