The Last of Their Kind

Three years after we won endangered species protection for the very last 340 belugas of Cook Inlet, Sarah Palin’s successor in Alaska has stepped up his state’s attack on these embattled creatures. He has filed a lawsuit that would strip away the belugas’ life-saving protection.

Over recent years, the genetically unique beluga population in Cook Inlet, Alaska, has plummeted -- from more than 1,300 to the 340 survivors that remain today. They are truly the last of their kind. And their habitat is under siege.

The latest threat comes from the proposed Pebble Mine, which would require a deepwater port in a part of Cook Inlet where the whales feed. The new port would increase shipping traffic, noise, pollution and other industrial activity -- all to service the monumentally destructive mega-mine.

You and I didn’t fight to save these last 340 belugas, only to see them wiped out by the Pebble Mine. That’s why it’s critical that we stave off the state’s outrageous attack on their endangered species status.