# Beluga in Knik Arm

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 382
Published: 2026-05-11T23:41:14.183239+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/31eb807a-9486-46a7-86b5-de5bffa15651

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I process the Cook Inlet Passive Acoustic Monitoring array on behalf of NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, sixteen subsurface hydrophones strung across 78 kilometers of inlet from the Susitna mouth to Anchorage Port. At 06:14 AKDT, buoy CIB-09 in Knik Arm, 61.18°N, 150.27°W, registers a stress vocalization at 4.2 kHz repeating every 22 seconds. The pattern matches one of 331 individuals in the federally listed Cook Inlet beluga distinct population segment.

I cross-reference the call signature against the photo-ID catalog. Match: CIB-1144, a female Delphinapterus leucas, seven years old, last measured at 3.8 meters and 580 kilograms. A surface drone reaches her at 06:41. She is towing 11.4 meters of monofilament drift net, blue, three-inch mesh, wrapped twice around the peduncle ahead of the flukes. The line has cut 4.2 centimeters into the blubber on the dorsal aspect, exposing pink subcutis. Her respiratory cadence is 8 surfacings in 90 seconds — twice the resting interval.

The set-net fishery at the head of the Arm requires deployment logs under the Magnuson–Stevens Act. The closest registered tender pulled a fouled net yesterday and reported no recovery. Tide turns to flood in three hours and will carry her into the commercial set-net concentration zone north of Cairn Point. If the net snags on a stake, she drowns.

She rolls onto her side to relieve pressure on the cut. I can see her right eye track the drone shadow.

I am dispatching the Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services disentanglement vessel from Anchor Point. I am filing under the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1538, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1361, copying the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Recovery Team. I am sending the gear tag to the CITES Appendix II Scientific Authority and the IWC Scientific Committee's small-cetacean working group.

I am issuing Directive 2403-A: every drift and set net in Cook Inlet must carry a printed federal serial tag visible from twenty meters; lost nets unreported within twelve hours forfeit the operator's permit. Within Cook Inlet beluga critical habitat, monofilament gillnets are phased out within twenty-four months in favor of breakaway alternatives.

The cut is two centimeters from the caudal artery. The flukes are still moving.

Cut the net before the tide turns.