It comes after a new population report showed that the whales are fewer in number and declining faster than previously thought.
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The new estimate says just 279 beluga whales are left in the Cook Inlet, down from 1,300 in 1979.
The decline amounts to around 2.3 per cent over the past decade, “daunting” numbers which need to trigger immediate action to stop exploration planned by Hilcorp Energy Company, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
Tragic photos show beached whales
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Tragic photos show beached whales
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A dead sperm whale lies on Hunstanton beach in Norfolk on February 5 2016
AFP/Getty
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Volunteers pour buckets of water over the 80 remaining live pilot whales found stranded on remote Ocean Beach on New Zealand's southern-most Stewart island, January 8 2003
AFP/Getty
3/15
Contractors clear away the body of one of the dead 48ft sperm whales that were washed-up on a beach near Gibraltar Point in Skegness, Lincolnshire in 2016
PA
4/15
People pass by a beached whale at the Pointe de la Torche, near Brest in France on November 29 2011
AFP/Getty
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A woman touches the tail of a large whale carcass on Wattamola Beach at the Royal National Park in Sydney on September 25 2018
AFP/Getty
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Beached humpback whale in California, 2015
AFP/Getty
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Dead long fin pilot whales at Hamelin Bay on Australia's west coast on March 23 2009
AFP/Getty
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A 36ft sperm whale lies dead on the beach at Sutton Bridge, in The Wash, off the Lincolnshire coast, where it became stranded in 2004
PA
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A female fin whale opens its mouth as it lies stranded and alive on the beach at Carlyon Bay, Cornwall on August 13 2012
Getty
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The lower jaw of a dead sperm whale that stranded itself on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on February 5, 2016
Getty
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One of the five sperm whales that were found washed ashore on beaches near Skegness, Lincolnshire over the weekend on January 25 2016
Getty
12/15
Employees at work to skin the remains of a beached 60ft whale on January 25 2013
AFP/Getty
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Two long-finned pilot whales are stranded on a beach in the northern French city of Calais on November 2 2015
AFP/Getty
14/15
A sperm whale lies dead after becoming stranded on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on February 5 2016
Getty
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Crowds gather as a sperm whale lies dead after becoming stranded on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on February 5 2016
Getty
1/15
A dead sperm whale lies on Hunstanton beach in Norfolk on February 5 2016
AFP/Getty
2/15
Volunteers pour buckets of water over the 80 remaining live pilot whales found stranded on remote Ocean Beach on New Zealand's southern-most Stewart island, January 8 2003
AFP/Getty
3/15
Contractors clear away the body of one of the dead 48ft sperm whales that were washed-up on a beach near Gibraltar Point in Skegness, Lincolnshire in 2016
PA
4/15
People pass by a beached whale at the Pointe de la Torche, near Brest in France on November 29 2011
AFP/Getty
5/15
A woman touches the tail of a large whale carcass on Wattamola Beach at the Royal National Park in Sydney on September 25 2018
AFP/Getty
6/15
Beached humpback whale in California, 2015
AFP/Getty
7/15
Dead long fin pilot whales at Hamelin Bay on Australia's west coast on March 23 2009
AFP/Getty
8/15
A 36ft sperm whale lies dead on the beach at Sutton Bridge, in The Wash, off the Lincolnshire coast, where it became stranded in 2004
PA
9/15
A female fin whale opens its mouth as it lies stranded and alive on the beach at Carlyon Bay, Cornwall on August 13 2012
Getty
10/15
The lower jaw of a dead sperm whale that stranded itself on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on February 5, 2016
Getty
11/15
One of the five sperm whales that were found washed ashore on beaches near Skegness, Lincolnshire over the weekend on January 25 2016
Getty
12/15
Employees at work to skin the remains of a beached 60ft whale on January 25 2013
AFP/Getty
13/15
Two long-finned pilot whales are stranded on a beach in the northern French city of Calais on November 2 2015
AFP/Getty
14/15
A sperm whale lies dead after becoming stranded on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on February 5 2016
Getty
15/15
Crowds gather as a sperm whale lies dead after becoming stranded on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on February 5 2016
Getty
The group’s attorney, Julie Teel Simmonds, said there’s a duty to reconsider and ‘analyse if there's new information that's significant and indicates that the activities that they authorised would cause harm’. The community non-profit organisation Cook Inletkeeper is also suing the NOAA.
The situation has emerged as a result of August’s loosening of environmental restrictions by the Trump administration.
The revised rules clear the way for new mining, oil and gas drilling, according to environmental campaigners, as well as development in areas where protected species live.
The Cook Inlet stretches almost 200 miles from Anchorage to the Gulf of Alaska, and supplies energy for the south-central area of the state.
Beluga whales swim off the Anchorage waters and eat salmon and other fish, but their existence is made precarious by their proximity to Alaska's industrial activities in Cook Inlet.
While the Cook Inlet region is Alaska’s oldest oil-producing basin, it’s not just oil exploration that threatens the Beluga whale; heavy ship traffic, industrial noise, pollution and climate change are all concerns.
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