Declining Numbers or Size of Beluga

Jack Fagerstrom of Golovin noted, "Over the last summer when out boating, four dead belugas were seen washed up on the beachs between Cape Darby and Topkok. Three of those belugas were young ones, about five feet long. Since then three more were seen washed up between Elim and Koyuk."

Gary Harrison of Chickaloon observed, "The Feds contracted with Native hunters to kill belugas in the Inlet. They said that the Native hunters decimated the whales. When Natives complained about the lack of whales, they said that Native hunters killed them off. If they extrapolated out the number of whales killed by Native hunters, there would still be a large number of whales unaccounted for. They can’t account for the lack of whales. We need to watch out for their tricks. They put Native groups against each other, but we are still friends after that."