Catch AWA’s Deputy Director, Mandy Migura, in Hannah Bissett’s article about Cook Inlet beluga whale stressors.
They want to learn more about Cook Inlet Beluga Whales' stressors. She said “We’ve lost over a thousand belugas in this population… That’s a huge, significant loss.”
Migura says [Cook Inlet beluga whale] decline in the past four decades can be attributed to several things that can be categorized as point and non-point pollutants.
Point source polluters have a permit, and pollution comes from a known source. She said, “That would be things such as wastewater treatment facilities, stormwater drains, seafood discharges.”
Non-point-source polluters don’t have a single point of the entrance like point-source polluters. She said, “Examples of that would be runoff from roads or on the airport or when it rains or when the snow melts, that all just kind of runs into the inlet.”
When it comes to point source polluters, Migura’s work focuses on pinpointing the mixing zones, gas and oil activity, and more. Migura and their team created a map that documents maritime shipping patterns, zones where permitted activities could incidentally take beluga whales, mixing zones where pollution is permitted to exceed water quality standards, and oil and gas pipelines and platforms.”
