As a proud member of the Alaska Beluga Monitoring Partnership, Alaska Wildlife Alliance and our partners are excited to open the fall beluga monitoring season from August 15th- November 15th!
The Alaska Beluga Monitoring Partnership (AKBMP) is a collaboration between Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, NOAA, Beluga Whale Alliance, and Kenai Peninsula College to offer opportunities for volunteer citizen scientists to contribute to endangered beluga monitoring efforts in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Together we design standardized scientific monitoring protocols, train volunteers to support monitoring efforts, and coordinate shore-based beluga monitoring activities at various sites throughout Cook Inlet.
Our first collaborative monitoring season took place in fall 2019 (mid-August to mid-November) and was a huge success thanks to all of our wonderful collaborators and volunteers! Unfortunately our first spring monitoring season that was suppose to run mid-March til mid-May 2020 was canceled due to the global pandemic.
As a citizen science monitoring volunteer you can collect important data on beluga distribution and habitat use in nearshore waters while building working relationships with professional researchers and scientists. The data you collect will be shared with researchers and federal agency personnel to inform ongoing marine mammal research and management activities and will be incorporated into NOAA’s Beluga Sightings Databases. Learn more about how to get involved, and the precautions we’re taking under Covid-19, at the partnership page www.akbmp.org!
Some legal stuff we have to mention about this text alert system: Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 31 msgs/mo. Reply STOP to 833-541-0408 to cancel anytime. We don't share your number with anyone and will only use it text you an alert once a day when belugas are reported (which could be up to 31 messages a month if belugas are seen every day).
