Photos taken under General Authorization, Letter of Confirmation No. 481-1759, MMPA/ESA Research Permit #14210 and #18016 .  Do not reproduce without permission.

Hello from a strange, new world

       Hello CIBW fans.  We hope that this newsletter finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy during these strange and stressful times.  We know that things are hard for everyone right now and so we thought that a dose of beluga whales might be a much-needed distraction for everyone.

      In case you haven't wandered out of your "hunkered down" bunker yet, spring has arrived!  With spring comes beluga whales!  The Kenai River and surrounding waters has had a steady number of CIBW sightings since March, and there have been recent sightings in Turnagain Arm.  If you find yourself out practicing safe social distancing measures and happen to see belugas, we would love to hear about it.  You can report your sightings here.  If you see us or anyone out beluga watching, please wave from afar and practice a safe social distance so that we all may continue to enjoy good health and beluga viewing. 

     If you haven't been to our website in a while, go check it out.  We have made some upgrades that include more whales from our catalog (more photos is always better in our world), a new sightings report form and 2020 sightings map, and a section about what we have learned about Cook Inlet beluga whales from using photo-ID.  

     We hope you enjoy the new website and we hope you all stay safe and healthy.  Please share this with other beluga fans! 

Happy Beluga Viewing!

The CIBW Photo-ID Project Team

Belugas in the Spotlight 

We are pretty lucky here at the CIBW Photo-ID Project.  We get to look at belugas year-round, either during our surveys, or from our desks processing photos.  We thought we would share some of the beluga love with all of you.  Here are more photos of belugas, some we have taken, and some you have taken.  Enjoy!

This photo was taken by CIBW Photo-ID Project team member, Tamara, last October in the Kenai River.  This whale is one of our dual-side whales that was first photographed in 2005.  We believe that Saddle is a female and presumed mother based on photographs taken over the years with an accompanying calf.  Saddle has unique deformities of an unknown nature.  This photograph is an example of the anthropogenic noise that the belugas experience in Cook Inlet.

Buzzcut- is another dual-side whale that was first photographed in 2005.  This whale is also a presumed female and mother.  This left-side photograph was taken by Sophia Peterson and her Kenai Peninsula College classmates in September 2018, in Twentymile River.

Piper- This right-side whale was first photographed in 2009.  This whale is presumed to a be a female who is a mother based on photographs taken with a calf.  This photo was taken in the Kenai River by Rickard Sjöberg

Insect- This is one of our newer recruits to the catalog.  Insect was first photographed in 2017 as a younger whale and has been photographed consistently since then.  A genetic sample taken from this whale via biopsy confirms that this whale is a female.  This right-side photo was taken by the CIBW Photo-ID Project.