Palin (la perra de Israel) protesta por proteger a un cetaceo (beluga) e incluirlo en la lista de animales protegidos.

La muy cuestionable y estupidamente ovacionada Sarah Palin ha protestato por que se incluyó a la beluga en la lista de animales protegidos. peor eso si no sea el tema del aborto por que huy se espantan ¿ No es toda forma de vida valiosa ?


Whale Protection Is Bolstered as Palin Objects

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/us/18beluga.html?ref=politics

By WILLIAM YARDLEY
Published: October 17, 2008
The federal government on Friday placed beluga whales that live in Cook Inlet in Alaska on the endangered species list, rejecting efforts by Gov. Sarah Palin and others against increased protection.

The relatively small, whitish whales, sometimes visible from downtown Anchorage, declined by almost 50 percent in the late 1990s, and federal scientists say they have not rebounded despite a series of protections, including a halt to subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives. About 375 whales have been counted in Cook Inlet each of the last two years, according to scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not recovering,” James W. Balsiger, the acting assistant administrator for the fisheries agency, said in a written statement. The whales are in danger of extinction, Dr. Balsiger said.

The announcement, made on a predetermined schedule under the Endangered Species Act, drew further attention to Ms. Palin’s positions on environmental issues. The governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, has come under scrutiny for her ambiguous statements about climate change and her administration’s failed effort earlier this year to prevent another species, the polar bear, from being listed as threatened. The state is suing the federal government over the polar bear listing.

As with the polar bear, Ms. Palin’s administration opposed the beluga listing in part because of its potential to restrict coastal and offshore oil and gas development. The beluga listing could also affect other projects, including the expansion of the Port of Anchorage and a proposed bridge over Knik Arm that would connect Anchorage to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and Ms. Palin’s hometown, Wasilla.

“I am especially concerned,” the governor said in a written statement in August 2007, when her administration submitted documents to fight the listing, “that an unnecessary federal listing and designation of critical habitat would do serious long-term damage to the vibrant economy of the Cook Inlet area.”

On Friday, Ms. Palin said the state had had “serious concerns about the low population of belugas in Cook Inlet for many years,” but she called the listing “premature.” Her administration challenged the federal government’s data, as it did with the polar bear decision.

The commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Denby S. Lloyd, said state data showed “an increase of more than 30 percent in the population, from 278 to 375,” since 2004. (The National Marine Fisheries Service said estimates had been as low as 278 in 2005.)

Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, a Democrat seeking to unseat Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican, also criticized the listing, citing its potential to impede the port expansion and result in “hugely expensive new requirements to Anchorage’s wastewater treatment.” Also opposed were Senator Lisa Murkowski and Representative Don Young, both Republicans.

The Cook Inlet belugas are among five beluga populations in United States waters, all in Alaska, according to the fisheries agency.

Since 2000, the whales have been listed as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The fisheries agency made its decision Friday in response to a 2006 petition from environmental groups. An environmental lawyer in Anchorage, Peter Van Tuyn, said he was pleased and somewhat surprised that the agency had agreed that the whales were endangered.

“I have never seen this agency take any more action than it was forced to,” Mr. Van Tuyn said, “so going through to endangered is great. I think the population is so darn small that they had no choice.”

The fisheries agency said the recovery of the whales was “potentially hindered” by several factors, including mass strandings, in which large groups of whales can be trapped on land during rapid tide changes that affect Cook Inlet; general development; oil and gas exploration; and pollution. The agency said it would “identify habitat essential to the conservation of Cook Inlet belugas in a separate rule-making within a year.”