Cook Inlet beluga whales, an endangered Alaskan population of about 300, use distinct call types for different activities.

Alaska's Cook Inlet was home to nearly 1,300 beluga whales in the late 1970s, but today the population hovers around 300. Despite almost two decades of recovery work, the whales aren't bouncing back.

The government has declared Beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet endangered, and they'll need special protection if they're going to survive. The number of whales plummeted 50 percent in just four ...

An adult Cook Inlet beluga (white) and a calf (gray). The Cook Inlet Beluga population, a genetically distinct group, has a few hundred individuals and was listed under the Endangered Species Act in ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By Kitson Jazynka, Special to the Washington Post In a large tank filled with cold water, an orphaned beluga calf slurps and gulps with gusto six times a day ...

SeaWorld officials say an endangered beluga whale rescued off Alaska’s coast is thriving in his new theme park home. The whale Tyonek was flown from the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, to ...

In this photo taken Aug. 25, 2017, provided by NOAA Fisheries, a newborn beluga whale calf sticks its head out of the water in upper Cook Inlet, Alaska. The population of endangered beluga whales in ...

Onlookers gather to watch a beluga whale swimming in the Kuskokwim River near Bethel, Alaska on May 26, 2022. (Anne Kosacheff) In an unusual event, a pair of beluga whales swam about 60 miles up the ...

Utqiagvik hunters Jared Nayakik and Billy Adams cut and packaged bricks of pink meat, sharing their whale harvest with everyone in the room. “The season was good for Barrow — we’ve landed quite a few ...