ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An environmental group that has pressed the federal
government to provide maximum protection for Cook Inlet beluga whales
said Thursday it intends to sue.

The issue is over designating critical habitat to help the white whales
that swim the waters off of Alaska's largest city recover. The whales
were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act a year
ago, meaning they likely are headed toward extinction.

Brendan Cummings, senior attorney for the Center for Biological
Diversity, said that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
missed an Oct. 22 deadline to designate critical habitat. The group
Thursday filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue.

"Unfortunately, as the beluga continues to decline, NOAA is really
dragging its feet in carrying out these necessary measures to protect and
ultimately recover the beluga," Cummings said.

Barbara Mahoney, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service
in Anchorage, said earlier this month that the critical habitat proposal
will be issued this month. She also said a recovery team is being
assembled. She did not immediately return a call Thursday for comment.

The state of Alaska opposes the listing and the designation of critical
habitat. It has expressed concerns about the potential economic impact
the listing will have on development in and around Cook Inlet. Gov. Sean
Parnell has said his administration is reviewing the listing.

Critical habitat designation would not stop development in and around
Cook Inlet, but would mean that projects needing federal permits, such as
the expansion of the port of Anchorage, mining, and gas exploration,
would undergo an additional layer of review to make sure those activities
do not hurt the animals' chances of recovery.

The Center for Biological Diversity has engaged in a decade-long legal
battle over Cook Inlet belugas. A government study released this month
found that the animals continue to decline. Their numbers have slipped to
321 belugas - down from an estimated 375, and after two years in which it
appeared numbers were stabilizing.

The cause of the decline is not known, but overharvesting by Alaska
Natives is believed to have contributed to the downward trend. However,
numbers continued to decline even after hunting was sharply curtailed a
decade ago. There has been no subsistence hunt for the past three years
and none is planned.

The whales are considered a genetically distinct population because they
do not mix with the other four beluga groups in Alaska. Those groups are
not endangered and number in the thousands.
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