Another Look at the Beluga Habitat Designation Debate

This week marks the end of the official comment period for the beluga critical habitat designation. And over the past few weeks and months we've all heard some pretty scary assertions about what this decision will mean for Alaska. It is only understandable that emotions fray and charged comments fly when people feel their lives may be impacted by the simple stroke of a pen in a far away city.

But imagine the alternative; imagine a day when beluga sightings in Cook Inlet, already increasingly rare, cease to be. There will be no ceremony to mark the sad day that these creatures stopped living among us, no announcement, no headline. This gradual change, should it come to pass, will not evoke the sense of heated outrage that the beluga critical habitat debate has. But rather, it will be marked by a quiet sadness and sense of loss because things are not as they used to be. And the question will be asked, aloud or not: Why didn't we do something when we had the chance?

This is our chance.