mother and calf pairs. The calves were estimated to be a minimum of 

 5-6 ft. long. Calves did not always surface when their mothers did, 

 but when they did, the calves came up just after their mothers. Many 

 calves were seen swimming just above the posterior half of their 

 mother. There was much speculation about whether the Cook Inlet is a 

 breeding ground for belugas. 



Three incidences of spy-hopping were reported which occurred when 

 there was a helicopter close. The usual behavior was the normal arched 

 rolling of the whales as they swam through the water. 



Responses to questions about the effect of the rigs on the whales 

 were always negative. Whales are seen \/ery close to the platform and 

 there were many reports that the flare booms seem to attract whales. 

 (It is more likely that the flares attract salmon, which in turn 

 attract the belugas.) People who had been on rigs both actively 

 drilling and not drilling could not report any change in the numbers of 

 whales sighted. Their observations were that as long as the noise was 

 consistent it didn't seem to effect the whales. Change in behavior 

 such as a quick dive, an avoidance reaction, occurred when a helicopter 

 flew over. All of the pilots and many workers reported this response 

 from the belugas. 



The direction of the tidal flow and the presence or absence of 

 salmon seemed to be the major factors which determined the location of 

 the beluga whales. 



There is a suggested resident population of about 300-400 belugas 

 (Henning, 1978) in the Cook Inlet. Many (78 people, 55%) reported 

 several occasions when belugas could be seen from one side of the inlet 

 to the other. Estimates of actual numbers range from 500-1000 animals, 

 which may indicate that the Cook Inlet is on the beluga migration 

 pathway. However, some kind of tagging or marker identification is 

 needed to distinguish new groups of animals from those already counted. 



Sightings of marine mammals other than belugas were few and far 

 between. A minke whale was sighted by two people. It was about 1/2 

 mile away from the platform. Pilot whales were reported by seven 

 people, all from platform Dillon. There were three or four animals 

 about a mile away from the platform. There were two reported incidents 

 of killer whales in the Cook Inlet. Five people could recall a time 

 three years ago when a pod of five animals were seen daily for about a 

 week. The other sightings were this past spring. Seventeen people 

 reported seeing a pod of eight killer whales swimming within the inlet. 



There were two reports of dolphins, one from two workers on 

 platform Bruce of a school of dolphin (50-100 members) about 1/2 mile 

 from the platform. The second report was of a pair of dolphins very 

 close to the King Salmon. The three men who saw the pair estimated 

 that the animals were about 50 yards away. 



C-22 



