さあ！諸君！捕鯨問題だ！

Carol Tocco, a Juneau-based spokeswoman for NMFS, said the agency had concluded that non-hunting activities would not hamper the whales' recovery. ``We really don't have concrete evidence that would be the case,'' Tocco said.
Six environmental groups petitioned NMFS in March 1999 to list the Cook Inlet beluga whales as threatened or endangered. In May, when NMFS' decision was two months overdue, the groups sued to prompt a ruling. The six are represented by Trustees for Alaska, an Anchorage-based environmental law firm.
Trustees for Alaska attorney Jack Sterne said the plaintiffs would either amend their lawsuit or file a new action to demand that NMFS give the whales protection under the Endangered Species Act.
”The most glaring thing about it is they admit right in the federal register notice that there is no other population of marine mammals that has gotten as low as they are that is not on the endangered species list,”Sterne said.