Mr. Beluga
A Day in the Life of Cook Inletkeeper

By Bob Shavelson, Cook Inletkeeper

Every Waterkeeper has a unique job, because every waterbody he or she protects is different. I’m the Cook Inletkeeper and I work with citizens, agencies and businesses to protect the 47,000 square mile Cook Inlet watershed in south-central Alaska. It’s a big area – about the size of Virginia – and with limited resources, it’s important to focus on the most pressing issues. It’s a challenging job, but I love it.

The Navy likes to say, “it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure.” Well, Waterkeeping isn’t just a job either and it’s more than an adventure. It’s a lifestyle. It’s an attitude. It’s a title that requires the bearer to be the heart and soul, eyes, ears, voice and conscience of the waterbody and the people, communities and resources that their waterbody supports. As Bob Boyle first noted in his account of the Hudson River in 1969, the Waterkeeper “in essence, gives a sense of time, place and purpose to people who live in or visit” the waterbody.

No two days are ever the same at my job because being a Waterkeeper is a juggling act, but a recent workday is a useful snapshot. A caller on our hotline reports 30 beluga whales feeding in the Upper Inlet. An anonymous email reveals pollution flowing from a defunct oil refinery. Our lab director runs tests on nutrients for the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. I talk to my lawyers about a case against the state of Alaska on coal bed methane leasing. I finish comments opposing a government proposal to expand natural gas drilling in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Our monitoring staff takes samples from a new road construction project. An Associated Press reporter calls with questions about the state’s shellfish mariculture industry. Our stream ecologist treks deep into brown bear country to monitor an important salmon stream. Each time we respond to a proposal by a polluter to expand their activities, every chance we have to reach the public with our message, every sample we collect and lawsuit we file is a strike for clean water, a healthy environment and our own well-being.

Reaching the public is one of the hardest parts of the job. For example, the Cook Inlet beluga whale population has plummeted over 50 percent in the last decade, and this small isolated stock is teetering on the edge of extinction. Yet few people know about the plight of this remarkable white whale and fewer still are willing to take action to protect it. At Cook Inletkeeper we are looking for new ways to reach the public. On Sunday, June 27 we held a “Beluga Bash” with live music and a halibut barbecue, and held the “Mr. Beluga” contest. More than 300 people came out to support beluga whale protection, and greet Ray Vegas Mr. Beluga 2004 with the spontaneous chant “Girth First! Girth First!”

Cook Inlet Keeper is just one of many Waterkeepers across the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. I’m proud to be a Waterkeeper, and I feel privileged to be allied with so many smart, committed and talented people in the Waterkeeper movement. Together, we’re taking back our publicly owned waterways one watershed at a time.